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The Way to the King- 
aom or Heaven 



AND 



What to Do to Be Saved in It 




By W. E. H. SEARCY, LL.B. 

(Superintendent Mission Sunday School) 

Author of " The Shorthand Reporter,''' " The Shorthand 
Court Reporter," "The Shorthand Clerk," ''The Life of 
Christ," ''The Future World," Etc. 



GRIFFIN, GA. 
SEARCY PUBLISHING COMPANY, PUBLISHER 

1908 



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UaHARY of CONl^REiSS 
I wo uooies tivuMua^ 

OCT 12 WU8 




Copyright, 1908, 
By W. E. H. Searcy. 



PREFACE. 

This book, "The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, and 
What to Do to Be Saved in It," is written for those who are 
in the Ivingdom as well as for those who are wanderers from 
the fcrfd — for those in the kingdom, that they may realize 
more fully the position they occupy, and that they may be 
better able to help others along the way; and for those out 
of the kingdom, that they may journey with more security 
in the steps they must take to enter the fold again. 

This book is not written in a spirit of controversy; hence 
we do not refer to what others teach in a way to censure 
their different views, but simply give the result of our own 
long and faithful study of the Scriptures. Therefore, should 
any sectarianist find a statement not in accord with his 
creed, we trust he may attribute our different views alone 
to our different interpretation of the Scriptures. 

No religious denomination is responsible for this book, 
and none is chargeable with the statements it contains. 
What is said is chargeable alone to the author. 

The book is the result both of years of study and of a 
practical experience of forty years in the Christian life. 

Let the reader glean its pages with care, and perhaps 
somewhere in it a grain of truth may be found that will 
ripen into luscious fruit for the Master. 

Throw the mantle of charity over any mistaken error 
we may have made in our conclusions; but be not hasty to 
condemn without careful consideration. 

May the Holy Spirit attend our effort; and, however feeble 
it is, may it be used to the glory of God and the good of 
our fellows! W. E. Searcy. 

Griffin, Ga , March 3, 1908. 

(3) 



ILLUSTKATIONS. 



Page. 

Human Life Driven out of Eden 12 

The Rended Veil 23 

"Suffer the Little Children to Come unto Me". 30 

"And a Little Child Shall Lead Them" 32 

Burning the Books — An Example of a True Conversion. 46 

The Passage of the Red Sea 57 

The Manifestation of the Christ (John i. 31) 59 

Where Grapes of Gladness Grow 74 

Descent of the Spirit at Pentecost 78 

The River of the Water of Life 80 

Jesus and Nicodemus 84 

Raphael 86 

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria 94 

The Transfiguration of Christ 96 

"Consider the Lilies" 103 

Castle San Angelo and St. Peter's, Rome 106 

Listening to the Word of God 116 

The Site of the Great Babylon as It Now Appears 120 

The Lord's Supper 126 

The Guardian Angel 136 

Messengers Appear to Abraham 138 

The Angel's Errand 140 

Repentance of the Ninevites 149 

The Pitying Father and the Prodigal Son 151 

Elijah under the Juniper Tree 168 

(4) 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

I. The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven 7 

II. The Atonement of Jesus, the Christ 10 

III. The Rended Veil 22 

IV., V. The Kingdom of Heaven and Christian Church- 
es 28,33 

VI. The Bible the Law of the Kingdom 34 

VII. The Relation of the Church to the Kingdom. . 35 

VIII. Entering the Kingdom of Heaven 38 

IX. Instantaneous Conversions 45 

X. Baptism 49 

XI. The River of Life and Its Living Water 81 

XII. Jesus and Nicodemus 83 

XIII. The Great Temples of the Earth, and the Tem- 
ple of the Holy Spirit 87 

XIV. The True Worship in the Kingdom of Heaven. 93 
XV. The Transfiguration of Jesus, the Christ, and 

the Transfiguration of Man 97 

XVI. The Development of Individual Life 99 

XVII. Diversity of Spiritual Gifts — Unity in the 

Kingdom 105 

XVIII. The Two Classes of the Kingdom of Heaven on 

Earth (Heb. v., vi.) Ill 

XIX. The Bible the Law of the Kingdom of Heaven 

—Our Duty to Study It 115 

XX. Sin 123 

XXL The Lord's Supper — Our Holy Communion... 125 
XXII. The Faith of Tender Love— St. Paul and St. 

James Reconciled 132 

XXIII. The Guardian Angels 137 

XXIV. The Book of Our Lives 143 

XXV. God as a Pitying Father 147 

XXVI. The Propagation of the Gospel 154 

XXVII. The Power of Influence for Good 158 

XXVIII. The Reign of Beneficent Law Is the General 

Providence of God 161 

XXIX. The Reign of Grace; or, Special Providence.. 165 

XXX. The White Stone and the New Name 171 

XXXI. A Parting Word 175 

(5) 



THE WAY TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, 

AND 

WHAT TO DO TO BE SAVED IN IT. 
I. 

THE WAY TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

When man arrives at the age of discretion, he 
finds himself confronted by two roads which diverge 
from each other and separate forever. One of these 
roads is broad, and has a wide gate at its very en- 
trance. It is an attractive and seductive way, mean- 
dering amid valleys and fields that are seemingly 
full of beauty to the eye and full of cheer to the 
heart. In the distance can be seen those who have 
gone this road, sowing to the pleasures of life and, 
like the butterfly, dallying amid its flowers without 
restraint. 

Yonder is a group that seem wild with delight 
at the gratification of the desires of the heart ; yon- 
der is another group wasting the strength of youth 
in licentiousness. They gloat upon the wine cup 
and seek the midnight orgies; they fall a prey to 
those who have forsaken the guide of their youth 
and forgotten the covenant of their God, whose 
house inclineth unto death and whose paths are unto 
the dead. 

Still farther on there are other groups of men 

(7) 



8 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

pleased with the thousands of vanities which delight 
the eye. 

To look upon it the road appears beautiful, and 
all seems bright and gay; but over the gate that 
leads into this way the young man reads this warn- 
ing: "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let 
thy heart cheer the days of thy youth, and walk in 
the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine 
eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God 
will bring thee into judgment." And in another place 
he sees these ominous words: ''This is the way that 
leadeth to destruction!'' 

On the right is another road. It is a narrow 
way, and at its entrance stands a narrow gate; it 
has none of the glitter that attracts the eye, none 
of the seductive pleasures that lead astray the heart ; 
it has none of the gaudy tinsels of earth ; it is but 
a plain, narrow way. But while it seems unbidding, it 
looks to be the proper way to travel, for over the gate 
are these inviting words : "This is the way of life — the 
way to the kingdom of heaven." And, too, the good 
Spirit, standing by, points to this route. He says 
that it lies through hidden valleys abounding in 
scenes of grandeur, which will fill the soul with 
sublimity; by hidden springs of glory, which will 
gladden tbe heart; by still waters, which will give 
peace to the troubled spirit ; by green pastures, which 
will fill with fatness; on up to the very house of God, 
where he may dwell forever. The question naturally 
presenting itself is: "Which road shall I travel?" 

Now, if left alone to his judgment, this question 
could be easily answered ; for his reason would con- 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 9 

vince liim that lie should travel the "best way." It 
does do so about the roads that go up and down 
the earth; and, if left untrammeled, it would do 
so about the roads that lead away into eternity. 

The trouble is, the evil spirit whispers in the ear 
to go down the broad road and have some fun or 
pleasure; that just ahead we can gratify this or 
that appetite or passion or desire; that the narrow 
way is a bleak way, fit only for old men and senti- 
mental women ; but not the way to find the pleas- 
ures of youth or manhood, which nature craves. 

Man too often lays aside the promptings of his rea- 
son, and the admonitions of loving friends, and the 
teachings of the Spirit, and the guidance of the con- 
science to follow this siren voice. Alas that it is so! 
for once well adrift doAvn this road, it is hard to 
get back to the innocence of the day when the young 
heart first bounded like a roe adown its forbidden 
paths. If he pursues these ways long enough to 
form its habits of sin, O what a yoke he hath put 
upon himself! It will bind him like the chains of 
death; for it is fastened with the devices of crafti- 
ness and riveted with the skill of angelic wisdom. 

O, my friend, put on the breakers ! Stop short ! Ev- 
ery time you gratify an unlawful appetite or pas- 
sion or desire, you are getting farther and farther 
doT\m the broad road and farther and farther from 
the way of life. As you grow older in years and sin, 
the harder it is to return. Solomon knew this. He 
says : "Eemember now thy Creator in the days of thy 
youth, while the evil days come not." The narrow 
wav is the wav of life. 



II. 

THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS, THE CHKIST. 

One who desires to be a citizen of the kingdom of 
heaven and to travel the narrow way we have por- 
trayed should understand that the very basis of our 
religion, which is the only guide to what we seek, 
is in the atonement of Jesus, the Christ; and that 
it will be of incalculable value to start out with 
some knowledge of what our Heavenly Father 
sought to accomplish in this great sacrifice of his 
Son in our behalf. 

"Christ Jesus, and Him Crucified," has been the 
theme of the evangelists for nearly nineteen hundred 
3^ears, and the ''old story" will ever be full of inter- 
est to the successive generations that shall be born 
into the world for all future time. 

The Object of the Atonement. 

God planted one human life in this world, known 
to us as the ''Adamic life." This life was first in 
Adam ; but God, seeing that it was not good for man 
to be alone, divided that one life, taking a part of 
Adam's bone, flesh, blood, and life, and making of it 
a woman. Eve. So that the Adamic life and the 
entire race of Adam was then in these two alone. 
This same idea is expressed in Hebrews vii. 10, where 
(10) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 11 

Levi paid tithes in Abraham to Melchizedek long 
before his birth into individual life. Now, while the 
whole human race was yet unmultiplied — no chil- 
dren to them having yet been born into the world — 
these parents of mankind committed a sin the pen- 
alty of which was spiritual death. The result was 
that death passed upon the guilty pair, and neces- 
sarily upon the whole human race in them. 

Then we had lost a world. But God so loved his 
creature man that he made a plan to rescue and 
redeem him from this lost condition. (1) That plan 
involved the vicarious sacrifice of the Son of God as 
a substitute for the penalty of man's transgression; 
so that the Son of God thus became a ransom for 
the life of mankind, and redeemed the whole race 
(still in the first parents unborn) from the death 
which had passed upon them. In the substituted 
death of the Son of God we see, therefore, that the 
whole race was redeemed, and thus became again 
guiltless (or justified) in the sight of God. So we 
had a redeemed world through Christ. God's plan 
for man also involved (2) the making alive, with 
spiritual life, the redeemed race, whereby the whole 
race lived spiritually again. But redeemed man, 
made alive, was as liable to sin as Adam and Eve 
had been, and was confronted by the same great 
evil influence which had prompted their sinful act 
in Eden; and hence God's plan had to provide fur- 
ther for man (3) by the gospel of the grace of God, 
whereby through faith or trust in the blood of Je- 
sus, shed in the vicarious sacrifice, sins of individu- 
als afterwards committed might be forgiven under 




HUMAN LIFE DRIVEN OUT OF EDEN. 



" By the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemna- 
tion; even so by the rio^hteousnes? of c ne the free gift came upon all men 
unto justification of life." (Eom. v. 18.) 

(13) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 13 

the provisions of the gospel, and all justified persons 
be gathered together into an earthly spiritual king- 
dom, in which Jesus Christ might reign over the 
spirit lives of men. God's plan was also designed 
(tt) to reconcile the human race to himself, whereby 
his Fatherhood would be recognized in the earth by 
the redeemed children of men. God's plan also pro- 
vided for man a plan (5) of progression through 
the aid of the Holy Spirit, associated with him, by 
which he might attain to the high state of Christian 
perfection. The elucidations of these five objects 
of the atonement of Jesus the Christ, as revealed in 
the Bible, will help the honest traveler on his "way 
to the kingdom of heaven," and show such traveler 
how he may be saved in the kingdom. 

Jesus, the Christ, the Substituted Penalty 

FOR THE AdAMIC TRANSGRESSION. 

The death of Jesus, as already stated, was a vica- 
rious sacrifice. The word "vicarious" means "act- 
ing in the place of another; substituted." The 
word "sacrifice" here means "an offering to God." 
So we look upon the death of Jesus as a substituted 
offering to God. This offering was not a substituted 
penalty — a punishment attached to the commission 
of a crime — but it was a substitute for a penalty. 
When the divine law was transgressed in Eden, the 
penalty of the transgression, as stated, w^as death of 
the transgressors and the whole human race, then in 
them unmultiplied. God did not pardon that trans- 
gression, but satisfied it by substituting his only-be- 



14 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

gotten Son; so in his death as such substitute the 
Scriptures truly tell us: "He tasted death for every 
man/' ''But we behold him who hath been made 
a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because 
of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and 
honor; that by the grace of God he should taste 
death for every man." (Heb. ii. 9.) 

Let us realize, then, the first great truth of the 
atonement: that Jesus died on the cross as a sub- 
stitute, in the stead of man, in full satisfaction of 
the penalty of man's disobedience in Eden; and as 
such substitute he was buried in the grave of Joseph 
of Arimathea, and as such substitute he arose from 
that sepulture; so we may say, constructively, 
through the principle of substitution, that man was 
crucified and died on the cross with Christ on Gol- 
gotha, was buried in the grave of Joseph, and arose 
therefrom with him. So this act of Jesus, the Christ, 
satisfied the transgression of Adam and saved the 
whole human race from its penalty of death. That 
all Christians are in accord with this statement, we 
need only refer to the universal belief in the salva- 
tion of children who die under the age of personal 
accountability. It matters not what our creeds 
may be, this truth appeals so strongly to the human 
heart and mind that no one can escape from it. 
Jesus, the Christ, took away the sin of the world, 
bore it himself, satisfied it by virtue of his vicarious 
sacrifice, and the original sin was expiated, and all 
children are saved — not conditionally saved, not 
placed on salvable ground, but saved: absolutely 
redeemed. 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 15 

John the Baptist, seeing Jesus coming nnto him, 
said: ^'Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away 
the sin [margin: "beareth the sin"] of the world." 
(John i. 29.) The Greek word a iron, translated 
"taketh" away," means "to bear, to carry, to take 
away, remove, destroy, kill." Isaiah, the prophet, 
over seven hundred and fifty years before John saw 
Jesus, had designated him as the "Lamb of God," 
and portrayed with wonderful accuracy his vica- 
rious suffering and death (Isaiah liii.). St. Chrys- 
ostom said: "Christ has paid far more than we 
owed, as much more as the boundless ocean exceeds 
a single drop of water." 

But Jesus did not satisfy man's transgression in 
the sense of a commercial transaction, as so much 
suffering for so much sin; he suffered enough, ac- 
cording to God's estimate — a full equivalent for 
man's deserved penalty and all demands of right- 
eous government, as a free manifestation of God's 
love. The satisfaction of the original sin of Eden 
blotted it forever from the book of remembrance; 
but it left man in the new position in which he had 
placed himself. It left him out of Eden, out of the 
reach of the tree of life, a toiler in the earth cursed 
for his sake. Instead of the beautiful trees of the 
garden, his vision fell upon the thorn and the this- 
tle ; instead of a diet of fruits, he became an eater of 
herbs and bread and flesh. The sorrows of concep- 
tion and birth were greatly multiplied; and "dust 
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" became 
the heritage of man. 

We should remember that a man sentenced for 



16 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

crime may be pardoned or his sentence satisfied ; yet 
neither the pardon nor the satisfaction will obliter- 
ate the scars that the crime inflicted upon him, or 
the turpitude that clings around his oft'ense ''like the 
odor round the old shattered vase." Human expe- 
rience confirms this view; and to-day Adam's pos- 
terity, with the sin of Eden canceled, still struggles 
with the problems which confront us through the 
laws of heredity and environment. 

GoD^s Second Purpose in the Atonement. 

Paul tells us that as through one trespass the 
judgment came to all men to condemnation, even so 
through one act of righteousness the free gift 
came unto all men to justification of life. (Kom. v. 
18.) The Greek word paraj^toma, translated "of- 
fense" or "trespass," means a "falling aside or away, 
to make defection from," and. refers here to the fall 
of the Adamic life in Eden. The word Jcatakrima, 
translated "condemnation," means a "condemnatory 
sentence, to give judgment against, condemn," and 
refers to the judgment of death given against Adam, 
and through him to all men in him. 

The meaning of the first clause, then, is that 
through the fall of Adam the judgment came to all 
men by a condemnatory sentence of God. 

In the second clause the word dilcaiomatos, 
translated "righteousness," means "rightful act, act 
of justice, equity, meritorious act, setting right, to 
hold as guiltless," and refers to the meritorious act 
of Christ. The words "the free gift" are not in the 



The Way to the Kimjdom of Heaven. 17 

original, but were inserted by the translators. The 
Greek word dikaios'ui, translated "justification," 
means here a judicial sentence, and, in connection 
with life, means that life by judicial sentence or 
adjustment came to all men, God set them right 
and held them guiltless. Taken as a whole, St. Paul's 
teaching is, that through the fall of Adam all men 
were adjudged dead, and through the meritorious 
act of Christ all men were adjudged to life again. 
John Wesley, in his "Notes," says of this passage: 
''The term 'justification of life' is that sentence of 
God by which a sinner under sentence of death is 
adjudged to life." 

So, then, God's object was not only to satisfy the 
penalty of the original sin, but also to makeman alive 
again. As the penalty of death was to pass upon 
all men, so the meritorious act of Christ extended 
to all men to justification of life. One was as broad 
as the other. St. Paul says: "As in Adam all die, 
so also in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 
XV. 22.) God's design is that, though man died in 
Adam without any fault of his own, he shall be made 
alive in Christ as the free gift of God. This making 
alive, taken in' reference to Adam's fall, is a clear 
teaching that all men will live, and that what we 
call the annihilation theory for the wicked is 
false. St. John, in speaking of the "Word" (Jesus, 
the Christ), says: "In him was life; and the life 
was the light of men. . . . There was the true light 
[Jesus, the Christ], even the light which enlight- 
eneth every man coming into the world [margin: 
"as he comes into the world"]." (John i. 4-9.) The 
2 



18 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

Greek word translated "every" is panta, which 
means "all." The teaching is that the life of Jesus 
enlightens all men as they come into the world — a 
declaration which should make every birth chamber 
a very gate to heaven. 

But whether at the very beginning, when man 
was driven from Eden, or at every birth into indi- 
vidual life, Jesus, the Christ, restores all men to life 
again. How he does so need not concern us at this 
time. We must not confound this teaching with 
the statement already made as to the condition of 
Adam after the fall. Many theologians have done 
so and have thereby laid a premise on a false foun- 
dation. The condition of Adam, we detailed, 
was purely a physical condition. Every declara- 
tion referred to his animal life. Living out of Eden 
was determined by the position of his body. Tilling 
the soil with thorns and thistles in his way, eating 
herbs and bread, the sweat of his face, the birth of 
his offspring, his return to the dust — all these things 
referred to the physical and not the spiritual. Christ 
made alive the spirit of man; his animal life was 
already living, hiding under the fig trees of Eden 
or toiling in the fields of earth. The restoration of 
the spirit of man must have been as complete as its 
fall, or the redemption or ransom was not complete. 

The Gospel of the Grace op God in the 
Kingdom op Heaven. 

As we stated, redeemed mankind was as liable to 
sin as Adam and Eve had been, being confronted 



The ^ya\J to the Kingdom of Heaven. 19 

with the same evil inlluences that induced them to 
commit the first transgression. Indeed, as man had 
lost Eden and its pleasant happy surroundings, and 
was now in an environment every way less condu- 
cive to the leading of a sinless life, we can readily 
see that he was in a more perilous position than he 
was in Eden. So that while God had redeemed 
mankind, it was necessary for him to establish a 
kingdom of heaven in the earth in which there would 
be a provision of grace and pardon, for the rescue 
of such of his redeemed people as should go astray 
from his fold. Hence, in the atonement of Jesus 
there was made once for all a propitiation for the 
individual or personal sins of men, as well as for the 
original sin of xldam. 

So that while all mankind are legally justified 
by the general redemption in the atonement of 
Christ, yet when mankind pass out of this justi- 
fied state into sin again they may still be reclaimed 
through the propitiatory sacrifice under the provi- 
sions of grace and pardon. Thus Christ's kingdom 
in the earth seeks to maintain itself by the conver- 
sion of sinners who stray from the Good Shepherd's 
fold, and bringing them back again to the plane of 
redeemed children, through the regeneration, rees- 
tablish them once more in the family of heaven. 
In the kingdom of heaven Jesus is the Mediator be- 
tween the sinner and God, through whom alone 
they may enter to the mercy seat and find pardon 
and release. The Scriptures say : "God sent his Son 
to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John iv. 10.) 
"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the 



20 The Waif to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the 
propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, 
but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 
ii. 1.) We see, then, that there are two sides to the 
gospel — the gospel to the redeemed whom he saved 
from sin, and the gospel to the sinner to reclaim 
him: to the redeemed that there may be a realiza- 
tion of life and obedient submission in love and an 
acceptance of the reign of Christ ; to the sinner that 
he may repent and -turn again to the plane of the 
redeemed, through the provisions of the gospel of 
the grace of God. 

GoD^s Fourth Object Was the Keconciliation 

OP Man. 

St. Paul tells us: "While we were enemies, 
we were reconciled to God through the death of 
his Son," etc. (Rom. v. 10.) Also in 2 Corinthians 
he says: "But all things are of God, who reconciled 
us to himself through Christ, . . . reconciling the 
world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their 
trespasses, and having committed unto us the word 
of reconciliation." (Chapter v. 18, 19.) Theolo- 
gians have raised the question as to whether or not 
God was also reconciled to man by the death of his 
Son. They enter into lengthy arguments to show 
that he was or was not. Why man should trouble 
himself to try to find out the mind of God (that con- 
cerns only God himself) is hard to understand. Be 
that as it is, it is certain that what God did for man 
should reconcile us to him. We know God was the 



The Way to tlie Kingdom of Heaven. 21 

offended party; but John tells us that ^'God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son," etc. 
It was this great love which prompted the atone- 
ment and through which God satisfied the moral 
laws of the universe and reestablished a close re- 
lationship with man. That plan was the basis of 
reconciliation, and in that sense God partook of it 
also ; but in a higher sense his reconciliation was in 
his love for his offspring, and the offering of his 
Son was a manifestation of that love as a pitting 
father. In the parable of the prodigal son we have 
the question illustrated. (Luke xv. 11-25.) 

EEDEMrTION FROM AlL INIQUITY. 

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus gave himself 
for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity 
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, and that 
the "blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin." 
Through the complete efficacy of the blood of Jesus, 
God's plan of redemption contemplates that Chris- 
tian development may reach, even in this life, a state 
of Christian perfection. In Hebrews x. 12-14 we read : 
"This man [Jesus], after he had offered one sacrifice 
for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God; 
. . . for by one offering he hath perfected forever 
them that are sanctified." The original word trans- 
lated "perfected" is the same as that used in He- 
brews V. 14 and vi. 1-3, signifying the attainment 
that may be reached through Jesus, the Christ, our 
Lord, according to the measure of the gift of Christ 
for the perfecting of the saints. (Eph. iv. 11, 12.) 



III. 

THE BENDED VEIL. 

We have read of the atonement of the Christ, and 
how for our sakes he died that we might live. We 
have read in the Old Testament of the temple serv- 
ice and of its forms and ceremonies, which through 
hundreds of years pointed the people to his coming. 
At last the veil of the temple was rended and the 
old dispensation ended, and Jesus, the Christ, began 
his kingdom in the earth. 

Let us now before considering his kingdom take 
a cursory view of the rended veil, and find the way 
to the kingdom of heaven through his torn and bleed- 
ing side. 

In the temple was an apartment called the holy 
of holies, in which was kept the ark of the cove- 
nant, which contained the golden pot that had the 
manna, Aaron's rod, and the tables of the covenant. 
The lid of the ark was called the propitiatory or mer- 
cy seat, over which were the cherubim with expanded 
wings, and about which the Shekinah, the glory 
cloud (the visible majesty of the divine presence), 
rested, and from whence issued the oracles of God in 
audible voice. 

Into this place only the high priest could enter, 
and he only once a year, on the great day of atone- 
ment. On these occasions he entered and appeared 
before the mercy seat, and sprinkled upon it the 
(22) 




THE RENDED VEIL. 



(23) 



24 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

blood of tlie sin offering for the sins of the people, 
and burned incense within the apartment. 

Now, between that apartment and the other courts 
of the temple there was a veil made of fine linen, of 
purple, blue, and crimson, with cherubim wrought 
thereon. 

The object of this veil was to screen or shut out 
from the vision of men the spiritual manifestations 
that occurred in the holy of holies, and in this re- 
spect it corresponds to the fleshly nature of man 
which veils spiritual manifestations from human 
eyes in the temple of the new dispensation — the body 
of man. 

Now, immediately upon the death of Jesus, while 
darkness was still over all the land, the veil of the 
temple was rended from top to bottom; so that if 
the priest was ministering at the golden altar (it 
being the time of the sacrifice) the sacred oracle 
was laid fully open to his view. 

Now the rending of the veil must have signified 
several things: First, that the holy of holies had 
fulfilled its mission, and could not be further used 
in the religious worship of the world. Therefore 
there was an end of the dispensation in which it so 
prominently figured. There was no longer need of 
the priestly intervention of the Aaronic priest, be- 
cause Jesus, the Christ, the Great Priest over the 
house of God, had taken his place and made one 
sacrifice for sin by shedding his own blood, once for 
all, in "propitiation for our sins; and not for ours 
only, but also for the whole world." 

With the abolishment of the propitiatory sacrifice 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 25 

in the temple also went all the ceremonies that at- 
tended it. 

The Shekinah, the "glory cloud," departed, and 
the oracle of God ceased its communications with 
the priest, because Jesus, the Son of God, mani- 
fested in the tlesli, stood face to face with the peo- 
ple and declared the Father. 

The veil itself was destroyed in the temple of the 
old dispensation by an invisible power, laying it 
open, and the veil of the temple of the new dispensa- 
tion — that is, the flesh of the human body — had been 
rended to make a new and living way for the spirit 
of man to approach unveiled the mercy seat where 
Jesus answers pra3^er. Through the way of the 
rended flesh, by the blood of Jesus, not only the Jew 
but all men may enter into the holy of holies and re- 
ceive a manifestation of the divine in their own lives. 

The rended flesh of Jesus by substitution for all 
men is that open way ; so that now in Jesus, through 
the propitiation of his blood, man may turn to the 
Lord and find that the veil is taken away. Paul 
tells us that "they that are of Christ Jesus have cru- 
cified the flesh with the passions and the lust there- 
of." If our own flesh is crucified with Christ, we may 
draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, 
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help 
in time of need. 

Why Not Accept the Atonement? 

Now we accept as true the great discoveries that 
are being constantly made in the realm of nature, 
and thereby admit what we all should know — that 



26 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

even in the world of matter about us there are many 
things yet unknown. If this be true of those things 
we are most familiar with, we are at a loss to under- 
stand why one should demand to know all of the 
higher life before he would feel constrained to ac- 
cept any of it. Does not even reason show us that 
in the spirit life there will be an endless progression 
in divine knowledge, and that if we should compass 
the whole subject now we would be equal with God? 
We would have all knowledge. 

Again, if we understand everything in the Bible, 
we might well imagine that the book was of mere 
human invention. God of necessity must have veiled 
something that the inquiring mind of man might 
seek for if haply he might find it. Indeed, one of the 
characteristics of our Bible, whereby it excels all 
books, is that its prophecies and statements have 
been unfolding through the years, and we are con- 
stantly running up with some hidden truth. 

So in this matter of the atonement of Christ (the 
greatest problem in the divine manifestations to 
man) we should not be so unreasonable as to de- 
mand to know all of the mind of God before accept- 
ing the provision that he has made for our happiness 
and salvation. The propitiation of Jesus satisfies 
the God who made us ; the offering he makes is vol- 
untary ; it costs us nothing, and those who have ac- 
cepted it have realized within their conscious nature 
the great benefits that result from its acceptance. 

According to our own human methods, the giver 
of anything has the right to present it in any way 
that suits him. It matters not to us in what form 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 27 

or in what manner God should give his Son as a 
sacrifice for fallen humanity. The only question that 
should concern man at all is this: Did God present 
the sacrifice in any form, and was it sufficient to 
rescue men from spiritual death? Millions of the 
hest men and women of this earth stand up and 
testify that the sacrifice meets all their spiritual 
needs, and when the shadows of death creep about 
their pillows they fall asleep fully assured of a bliss- 
ful immortality. 

After realizing that God has done so much for the 
children of men by the atonement of his Son, and 
what has been and can be accomplished in the world 
by his great vicarious sacrifice, through the instru- 
mentalities of grace and pardon that have been es- 
tablished through its meritoriousness, we hope a 
desire is engendered on the part of our reader to 
seek the way to the kingdom of heaven again, if he or 
she has wandered away from the fold. God help us 
all to realize that we have been redeemed by the 
precious blood of Jesus, and that if "our heart is 
not now right with God" we should turn from the 
evil that besets us and through the grace and par- 
don of the gospel find a renewal of our relations 
with the infinite and divine ! As the work of redemp- 
tion was finished on the cross and all men legally 
justified before God, Ave need not linger to think of 
the universality of God's provision for man, nor of 
Ihe completeness of his redemption; but let us turn 
to those provisions of the gospel of the grace of God 
which are engrafted on the redemption to establish 
and perpetuate the kingdom of heaven among men. 



IV. 

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AND CHRISTIAN 

CHURCHES. 

One seeking to be a disciple of Christ should un- 
derstand at the very beginning what the kingdom of 
heaven is, and what are its relations to the Chris- 
tian Churches, with which our land is so gloriously 
filled. The kingdom of heaven is the reign of Christ 
on earth. It is a spiritual kingdom — that is, has to 
do with the spirit natures of men. Jesus said it 
does not come by observation — that is, no one can 
see it. He says also: "Neither shall they say, Lo 
here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is 
within youJ' We see, then, that it is an invisible 
kingdom set up by Christ within men. 

Members op the Kingdom of Heaven. 

All the people of the earth as they are born into 
individual life become members of the kingdom of 
heaven — all having been redeemed by Christ in his 
atonement, as already fully explained. Those peo- 
ple of earth who are not in the kingdom of heaven 
are so simply because they have fallen into sin and 
have gone out of it. 

This great truth, which the religious world should 
embrace, is taught us by Christ himself. When his 
(28) 



The ^Vay to the Kingdom of Heaven. 29 

aj)ostles would have kept the cliiidreu from being 
brought to him, Jesus said : ''Suli'er the little chil- 
dren [paidia] to come unto me, and forbid them 
not : for of such [toiouton] is the kingdom of God/' 
(Mark x. 14.) The Greek word toloutos means 
"of this kind or sort," and refers here to the kind 
that belongs to the kingdom of God or heaven. The 
American Eevised Testament renders the passage 
thus: ^'Suffer the little children to come unto me; 
forbid them not : for to such belongeth the kingdom 
of God." Jesus took the little children in his arms 
and blessed them, laving his hands upon them. As 
these little children were brought to Christ and he 
took them into his arms, we can see that they were 
indeed little children. The word used here for lit- 
the children was used in regard to Jesus when he 
was forty days old: "The parents brought in the 
child [paidion] Jesus, that they might do concern- 
ing him after the custom of the law." (Luke ii. 27.) 
On another occasion Jesus was being questioned 
as to who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven, 
and he called a little child unto him and set him 
in the midst of them, and said: "Yerily I say unto 
YOU, Except ye be converted [straphete — "change 
your course and conduct"], and become as little 
children [paidia], ye shall not enter into the king- 
dom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall hum- 
ble himself as this little child, the same is greatest 
in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive 
one such little child in my name receiveth me." Now, 
here we have a beautiful picture: Apostles asking 
who shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and 




** SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME.' 

(30) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 31 

Jesus calling a little child and setting him up to 
their view. He then lectures the apostles by tell- 
ing them unless they are converted and become like 
the little redeemed child they should never be ad- 
mitted themselves into the kingdom of heaven. We 
see, then, that there are two classes in the kingdom 
of heaven : little children and converted people who, 
having wandered off, have changed their course and 
conduct and returned to the kingdom. Some object 
to children being members of the kingdom on the 
ground that the Holy Spirit comes only through 
faith, of which little children have none; but we 
have evidences in the person of John the Baptist 
that children have been filled with the Holy Spirit 
even before their birth. Now, if that was done un- 
der the old dispensation, why should it be incredi- 
ble in the new, in which the Holy Spirit so glorious 
ly manifests himself? The great prophet Isaiah, in 
speaking of the government of the Messiah, said: 
'^The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the 
leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf 
and the young lion and the fatling together ; and a 
little child shall lead them." 

Does not St. John settle the matter finally when, 
in his first chapter, he says : ^'There was the true 
light which lighteth every man coming into the 
world," or as he cometh into the world. (Verse 9.) • 
It is through the atonement of Christ that all men 
are saved, and therefore every child is admitted to 
the kingdom when in the birth chamber he begins 
life as an individual being. So there is a time in 
the history of each human being when he is a mem- 






t i\ 




"AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM." 

Concerning tlio Messiali, Isaiah, foresaw that the little child would 
toe prcininent in His kingdom of peace and righteousness. (Isa. xi. 6.) 

(32) 



Thv Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 33 

ber of Christ's kiugdom. If the Christian world 
of to-daj could recoguize this truth, the gladsoine 
songs of the little children would bring to mind the 
saying of the great apostle of Pentecost: "For to 
you is the promise, and to your children." It would 
not only double and treble the recognized kingdom 
on earth, but would bring the children themselves 
to the sweet realization that they were saved beings, 
instead of allowing them to grow out of the fold 
like stray sheep until some one else has laid his 
hands upon them. There is doubtless nothing more 
pleasing to the evil one than this abandonment of 
the little ones to the world until sin has found its 
way into their little lives. It is true through the 
Sunday school (which is now to the Church what the 
nursery is to the family and home) we are seeking to 
plaster up the truth, but the Christianity of the twen- 
tieth century should go farther and take into its folds 
allthe little children. Jesus says: "Whoso shall receive 
one such little child [paidion] in my name receiv- 
eth me." But to the adult Jesus sa^'s: "You must 
change your life : you must go back to the life plane 
of the child. For you there must be faith and re- 
pentance/' 



V. 



The prophets of Israel foretold the establish- 
ment of a Messianic kingdom in the world, and 
pointed by many prophecies to Him who in the full- 
ness of time should come into the earth as its King. 
3 



34 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

It was even foretold that He should be born of a 
virgin mother, of the tribe of Jndah, and in the city 
of Bethlehem. Jesus fulfilled in his birth and life 
all the requirements of the prophecy as the Kin'g of 
this kingdom. John the Baptist heralded his com- 
ing into his kingdom, and manifested him to Israel 
by a baptism, which he administered to all persons 
who presented themselves in a repentant condition, 
and God put the seal of his anointment upon him 
by the descent of the Holy Spirit in visible form 
upon his head. After nineteen hundred years no 
one of thoughtful mind should doubt that Jesus, 
the Christ, is the King of God's spiritual kingdom 
established in the earth. 



VI. 

THE BIBLE THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM. 

The Holy Bible, as we have it, is the accepted law 
of the kingdom of heaven. By its unexampled moral 
teachings it calls us to the highest state of human 
manhood and womanhood and childhood, and cre- 
ates among us the highest state of civilization and 
culture, making the world wiser and better, reveal- 
ing a knowledge about spiritual things, inducing 
charity and fellowship among the children of men. 



VII. 

THE EELATION OF THE CHUKCH TO 
THE KINGDOM. 

A Churcli is composed of such citizens of the 
kingdom of heaven as are called together and or- 
ganized into a body, or assembly, where the word 
of God is preached and the visible ordinances of the 
kingdom of heaven are administered, and from 
whence, by united action, the kingdom of heaven 
may be extended in the earth and its individual 
members built up in the divine life, and where Chris- 
tians with various spiritual gifts may come together 
with others of various gifts for the advancement of 
all, making a harmonious gathering in the interest 
of Christ's reign. The word "Church'' (Ekklesia) 
means in the Greek "to call out, to summon forth." 
All Christians together make the body of the Lord, 
and all that are called together at any ouje place 
and are organized into a permanent assembly con- 
stitute the Church at that place. 

It is God's design that we shall have churches, 
and that none of the citizens of the kingdom shall 
omit the assembling of themselves together in them. 
The term "Church" is used not only in reference to 
Christian Churches, but also to the Church in the 
wilderness. (Acts vii. 8.) When the word Ekklesia 
was spoken in reference to Christian assemblies, 

(35) 



36 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

there were no definitely ecclesiastical organizations 
with names and officers as we have now. All citi- 
zens of the kingdom of heaven were called ^^Chris- 
tians." There were no denominations, no divisions 
into sects. One of the Fathers thus expresses it: 
"All the apostles from the beginning held one faith, 
and preached not themselves, but Jesus Christ their 
Lord. For this reason they all gave the Church one 
name, derived not from themselves, but from their 
Lord Jesus Christ after they had already begun to 
be called Christians at Antioch." Jesus himself 
was a member of the Jewish Church, and so were 
Paul and other apostles. The Christian Churches 
were organized after the veil of the temple was 
rended, and after the resurrection of Christ, and 
on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit 
instituted the new dispensation. A Church was 
organized at Philippi, another at Ephesus, another 
at Thessalonica, another at Philadelphia, another at 
Corinth, and so on — all being composed of those 
who entered the kingdom of heaven. 

It was after the apostolic days that Christians 
divided into sects. The truth is, those who thought 
alike went off together and founded Churches. So 
that now, instead of having one Church at one place, 
called "Christians," we have many Churches of 
different names. But all Christian Churches are 
agreed on the essentials of salvation, and principally 
disagree upon the subject of water baptism and 
forms of Church government. The evangelical 
Christian ^orld is drawing very close together, and 
much of the prejudice of the past is wearing away. 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 37 

God grant that the Christian Churches of every 
name and creed may draw still closer together, and 
that every discordant note to unity in the kingdom 
of heaven may be removed ! 

Union meetings between denominations have been 
productive of great good. When denominations of 
Christians come together and organize union assem- 
blies, they can almost be designated as the Ekklesia 
at that place. There is no exclusiveness in the 
Church of Christ: all Christians are of Christ's 
''fold." Jesus himself said to the Pharisaic Jew: 
''Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them 
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; 
and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd." 

Under our interpretation of what a Church is, 
it is not necessary that we should alhide to Churches 
further; but we shall consider the kingdom of heav- 
en, which is the groundwork of the Church, the 
Church being only such citizens of the kingdom of 
heaven as assemble and worship together in organ- 
ized form. 



VIII. 
ENTERING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 

The great sermon of the apostle Peter, delivered 
in Jerusalem about fifty days after the crucifixion 
of Christ, is the most effective sermon of which we 
have notice in the New Testament. He began to 
preach at nine o'clock in the morning, which was the 
third hour of the day. He explained to the multi- 
tude that assembled to hear of the wonderful things 
that were happening in the upper chamber that it 
was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel (Joel ii. 
2-32), that in the last days God would pour out his 
Spirit upon all flesh, and that it should come to 
pass that whosoever should call on the name of the 
Lord would be saved. (Acts ii. 16-21.) He then 
preached "Jesus Christ and him crucified," spoke 
of his resurrection and ascension, and declared that 
Jesus, "being by the right hand of God exalted, and 
having received of the Father the promise of the 
Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this [the Holy 
Spirit], which ye now see and hear." He then de- 
clared Jesus to be both Lord and Christ. This great 
sermon moved the people, and caused them to cry 
out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 

Through the instrumentality of that sermon three 
thousand people that day received his Word, and 
were baptized and added to the forces of Christiani- 
(38) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 39 

ty, which at that time were probably only about five 
hundred in number. 

Peter's answer to the honest Inquiry, ''What shall 
we do?" and what the people did that day to enter 
the kingdom of heaven, is the answer we should give 
to every inquirer who is seeking to enter the king- 
dom. Then Peter said unto them: "Repent, and be 
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ 
[Lord Jesus, in the Syriae] for the remission of sins, 
and ye shall receive the GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIR- 
IT." "Then they that gladly received his word were 
baptized: and the same day there were added unto 
them about three thousand souls." Now the word that 
these people received w^as what Peter preached — that 
is, faith in and acceptance of Jesus as the Christ and 
Lord. Faith is the golden key that unlocks the 
stairway that leads to heaven : through faith we are 
lifted step by step as we journey toward that good- 
ly land. It is faith that opens wide the door to 
eternal bliss, and only ends at last in gracious sight 
when we get home. We tell a sinner mourning at 
the altar of God to exercise faith, and he does it and 
is saved. We tell the Christian thirsting after more 
righteousness to exercise faith, leave the doctrines 
of the first principles and press on, and the beauties 
of holiness illumine the soul. Man works through 
the years, and nature toils with the seasons; but 
God speaks and the work is done. There is no need 
that faith should unfold us as a bud through life's 
long season of doubt and fear ; have enough of faith 
to open wide the spirit nature, and let the flood of 
heavenly refreshings flow in at once and make of us 



40 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

a flower full-blown. As thy faith is, so be it unto 
thee. Some teach that this faith is the gift of God, 
and in one sense it is the gift of God; but it is so 
only in the sense that all our capabilities are from 
his generous hand. There is a faith that is a gift 
of God in that it is a special gift of the Holy Spirit ; 
but that faith comes after the Holy Spirit has en- 
tered the man, and is given to some, and not all, 
Christians. The Scripture says: "For to one is 
given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another 
the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to an- 
other faith by the same Spirit," etc. (1 Cor, xii.) 

The first step toward divine life is to accept the 
teachings of God's book — accept the Christ. This 
any man can do. "Lord, I believe; help thou mine 
unbelief," will start the ball in motion in any human 
heart that is sincerely seeking after the divine life. 
When these people believed Peter's words and re- 
ceived them gladly, they were in position to pass rap- 
idly to the plane of newness of life in Christ Jesus. 

Peter tells them what is to be done after they 
assented to the truths which he i)reached. They 
were to repent and be baptized in the name of 
Jesus Christ, or the Lord Jesus, for the remission 
of their sins. This was what had to be done on 
glorious Pentecost, and it is what we have to do 
this year of grace 1908; and it is that which we 
will have to do to the end of time. 

We must first repent. No one else can repent 
for us. It is something we must do for ourselves; 
and when we do that, then we are ready to under- 
stand what we accomplish by baptism. Repentance 



The Way to tJie Kingdom of Heaven. 41 

and baptism go baud in hand togetlier. Tlie com- 
mand is, ''Repent, xlND be baptized." And the ob- 
ject of repentance and baptism is stated plainly: 
it is ''for the remission of sins." 

Now, what is repentance? Dr. Lyman Abbott, 
in his commentaries, says: '^ 'Repent' [metanoco] 
is composed of two words, [meta] 'after' and [noco] 
'to perceive' — that is, to perceive afterwards, hence 
to change one's view, mind, or purpose." Jesus 
gives us an illustration of true repentance in the 
parable of the prodigal son, who left the far coun- 
try and his wickedness and wretchedness and re- 
turned to his father with confession and a prayer 
for pardon. Repentance is not only the forsaking 
of sin, but in addition to its abandonment is a 
change of mind about sin and walking in the new 
way, wherein is righteousness. It is reversing the 
past by turning and going the other way. 

Peter's audience, or many of them perhaps, looked 
upon Christ as an impostor; but when Peter had 
finished his sermon, they looked upon him as Lord 
and Christ. Their minds had undergone a change. 
They were in a new realm of thought and action. 
We are told that after that "they continued stead- 
fastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and 
in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Theirs was 
a true repentance and a full repentance. 

Xow, when this true repentance takes place, there 
is alwavs a remission of sin. Dr. Dale, a learned 
Christian writer, says: "Repentance cannot exist for 
a moment without the remission of sin, any more 
than the lightning flash without the thunder peal.'' 



42 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Let this thought be fully understood, for many 
Christians have not thought upon the subject suffi- 
ciently to help others at this critical point. 

We mean to teach that when any one accepts 
Christ as his Saviour, and honestly changes his 
mind to realize that right living is his proper course 
in life, and enters upon that right living praying 
God for the pardon of his sing, his sins are blotted 
out for Christ's sake, and there is nothing left 
against him on the records of heaven. This is by 
the mediation of Christ, through his atonement. 
We have heard repentance preached as if it meant 
many tears and much sorrow, and some have under- 
stood this to be repentance. We are told that godly 
sorrow worketh repentance, while worldly sorrow 
produces death (2 Cor. vii. 9, 10) ; but that godly 
sorrow is not repentance itself; it simply produces 
it, brings it about. We do not object to tears and 
sorrow for a past sinful life, provided the tears 
and sorrow lead to a change of life. If we weep 
oceans of tears and continue in wrongdoing, there 
is no repentance in it. We must not mix the means 
of repentance (the things that induce us to repent) 
with repentance itself. 

We are told that Esau sold his birthright for one 
morsel of meat, and that afterwards when he sought 
to inherit the blessing "he was rejected : for he found 
no place of repentance, though he sought it care- 
fully with tears." (Heb. xii, 17.) Esau could not 
quit his wild life and cease to do evil and learn to 
do well. His sorrow was a worldly sorrow, and 
was onlv to death. 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 43 

This state of remission of sins which one finds 
himself in when he has truly repented is what we 
call the state of justification. This state of justifi- 
cation we have seen is attained by faith in Christ 
and repentance by all who have sinned. Human 
beings who have never sinned, as little children, are 
in the same state of justification, not through faith 
and repentance, but through the atonement of Jesus, 
the Christ. 

While their justification is called a legal justifi- 
cation, and the justification of the sinner by faith 
and repentance is called by some evangelical justi- 
fication, the state or condition, as we said, is one 
and the same. It is important to understand this 
truth, and we repeat here what we have already 
stated as to children. Many Christians have over- 
looked it when they came to consider the state of 
justification, to the great detriment of children and 
the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus came into the 
world and atoned for all original sin, then the whole 
human life was justified before God (Kom. v. 18) 
and mankind became a race of redeemed beings. This 
is the reason that little children when they die are 
now admitted to be in such a justified state as to enti- 
tle them to a home in heaven, as we have already 
stated. 

Now, the word "justification" (dlkaiosin) here 
means setting right, to hold as guiltless. The Syriac 
New Testament renders Eomans v. 18 thus: "There- 
fore on account of the offense of one, condemna- 
tion was to all men : so on account of the righteous- 
ness of one will the victory [justification or acquit- 



M Tlie Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

tal] unto life be to all men/' This is the state of 
legal justification, which is the state of every little 
child in the world who has no sin of its own. Now, 
every person in the world, therefore, has been in 
this justified state or condition, and by sin men get 
out of it. Therefore, to get back to the state again 
there must be a change of life and thought and ac- 
tion — the getting out of a state of sin into the state 
of justified childhood. This is repentance and the 
object of repentance. 

Peter tells us in Acts iii. 19 how this is accom- 
plished, which is simply an enlargement of what 
he said on the day of Pentecost: ^'Eepent ye there- 
fore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted 
out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing 
from the presence of the Lord." (Revised Version.) 
Jesus himself conveyed the same thought when he 
placed the little child in the midst of his disciples, 
and said : ^'Except ye be converted, and become as 
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." (Matt, xviii. 3.) 

The word translated "converted" (straphete) 
means "changed — to change one's course, to turn 
one's self about," which is the same thought Peter 
expressed on the day of Pentecost, defined by Peter 
himself. This turning about was to get rid of sin, 
that the Holy Spirit might come from the presence 
of God. The meaning of it all is that we must ac- 
cept Christ, reform our lives, change our course to 
doing good, return to the plane of justified child- 
hood, and thus in this justified state await the pleas- 
ure of God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. 



IX. 
INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSIONS. 

The flower graduall}' unfolds in the breath of 
the spring. The germ in the acorn develops into the 
giant tree through long years, i Even brain develop- 
ments come through much labor and waiting. This 
rule does not hold, however, in si)iritual develop- 
ment, because if it took much time we might not be 
here to perfect ourselves in it. We can see in an 
instant that such a rule could not hold if time were 
required. The young die as well as the old, and to 
many the necessary- time could never come. 

Every step in the spirit life is instantaneous. We 
speak of growth in grace; but that is in favor, and 
not development. We may grow in the knowledge 
and favor of God, but not in spirit. 

Men may graduallj^ reform their lives. For in- 
stance, one may cease to drink alcoholic liquors, and 
thereby reform a life of drunkenness. One may 
cease to swear, another to steal, etc., reforming 
their lives in these particulars. 

Indeed, there are but few, if any, human faults 
that a man^cannot reform by desisting from them; 
and certainly to that extent he is a reformed man, 
in so far as his outer life evidences. There is no 
doubt but that the sjurit of asceticism practiced 
in some of the ancient religions of the world brought 
their devotees to a very high state of right living. 

(45) 




BURNING THE BOOKS — AN EXAMPLE OF A TRUE CONVERSION. 

(Acts xix. 19.) 
(46) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 47 

Their lives to all liumau appearances were faultless^ 
and those who excelled in these triumphs of the 
human will over the flesh reaped the highest honors 
that men could bestow upon them. On some were 
bestowed divine honors. 

It was the old heathen, Horace, who said, ^'Who- 
so denies himself of the much that nature covets 
shall have in recompense what God approves," show- 
ing that even the heathen mind, though benighted 
by spiritual darkness, could get hold of the truth 
we now state. 

While this is all true, we have found in the ''moral 
man" a higher and a different principle. A refor- 
mation here is instantaneous from the very nature 
of the quality of moral actions. In order to under- 
stand this clearly, let us see how the actions are 
considered under the moral law and the civil law. 

Our law books tell us that there can be no crime 
without joint operation of the intent and act. If 
we find the intent, the crime appears the plainer; 
but if we find no intent, the law goes farther and 
presumes that a man intends to do what he does, 
except the contrary be shown, as in cases of acci- 
dents. Human law cannot rest upon the intent, 
because we cannot tell the intentions of men. The 
Bible very truly says: "No man knoweth the things 
of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him." 
So, when we come before the human judge, the in- 
tention cannot be read by him. 

Under the moral law everything is different. There 
God is the judge, and he is acquainted with our inner 
nature sufficiently to judge a man by his intention. 



48 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

If one commits an act that is detrimental to oth- 
ers, and it is known that it was unintentional, even 
the hardest men are tempered in their judgments 
with mercy for the unfortunate one. 

So God, knowing the intentions of men, cannot 
be less merciful or just than man, and must of neces- 
sity excuse every crime against the moral law that 
was unintentionally committed. Our moral philoso- 
phers are all agreed that the quality of a moral ac- 
tion rests in the intention. 

We are now fully prepared to understand that 
moral reformation is not the reformation brought 
about by asceticism, but the reformation that results 
from an honest intention. 

When a man therefore honestly intends to for- 
sake his sins and turn to God, reformation is in- 
stantaneous in his moral nature. It does not take 
one minute or half a minute. 

If we read Acts iii. 19 in the light of this truth, 
we can understand it. Here is the verse in a liberal 
translation of the Greek: "Keform therefore and 
turn, that your sins may be blotted out : so that sea- 
sons of refreshing may come from the presence of 
the Lord." This moral reformation and turning 
about places us where our sins may be blotted out 
and our nature regenerated of God. 

Any man may be converted instantaneously, on 
the street or at church or at home, who puts him- 
self before God in an honest, sincere intention to 
forsake his sins and thereafter be obedient unto 
the Heavenly Father. 



X. 

BAPTISM. 

After repentance come the baptisms of the king- 
dom. At the very beginning of the New Testament, 
in the third chapter of its first book, we are con- 
fronted with two baptisms. One is a baptism with 
water, administered by John; and the other, the 
baptism of the Holy Spirit, administered through 
the agency of Jesus, tlie Christ. John said of these 
baptisms: "I indeed baptize you with water unto 
[eis] repentance: but he that cometh after me is 
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to 
bear : he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and 
with fire." (Matt. iii. 11.) 

Now, of these two baptisms, the last we hear of 
that of John was at Enon, just before he was cast 
into prison. Complaint was made to him that Jesus, 
through his disciples, was also baptizing in Judea, 
to which John replied fully, showing that his work 
was decreasing (going out), while that of Jesus was 
increasing (coming more into the light). Said the 
great prophet : "He must increase, but I must de- 
crease." (John iii. 23-30.) 

This water baptism of John did cease after ful- 
filling its mission, which was the manifestation of 
the Christ (John i. 31), and it was rejected form- 
ally by Paul at Ephesus as not being Christian 
i (49) 



50 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

baptism (Acts xix. 3-5), and thereafter had no fur- 
ther connection with the Christian dispensation. 

As to tlie water baptism used by the disciples dur- 
ing the ministry of Jesus, we have only two allu- 
sions: ''After these things came Jesus and his dis- 
ciples into the land of Judea; and there he tarried 
with them, and baptized." (John iii. 22.) ''When 
therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had 
heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples 
than John, (though Jesus himself baptized not, but 
his disciples,) he left Judea, and departed again 
into Galilee." (John iv. 1-3.) This water baptism 
was administered, we see, by the disciples, and there- 
fore was not that great baptism which John said 
should be by the Holy Spirit and fire. 

It was after the veil of the temple had been rend- 
ed and the old dispensation ended, and after the 
atonement was completed, finished, and the king- 
dom of heaven made thereby possible in the earth, 
and after the resurrection, that Christian water 
baptism was formally commanded by the Master, 
in what is called the "Great Commission." The 
great commission is thus stated in the Master's own 
words: "Go ye therefore, and TEACH all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit : TEACHING them 
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you: and, lo, I am with you ahvay, even unto the 
end of the world. Amen." The word "teach" in the 
first line is translated in the Eevised Version "make 
disciples of," and in the Syriac Testament "instruct." 
Mark's account of the great commission is: "Go ye 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, oi 

into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature [ktisei — ''created thing; the human race"]. 
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but 
he that believeth not shall be damned." The Syriac 
renders the two last clauses : ''He that believeth and 
is baptized liveth: but he that believeth not is con- 
demned." The Eevised Version also translates the 
last word "condemned," and this we consider the 
true meaning. The two oldest manuscripts of the 
New Testament omit the whole of the quotation from 
Mark, leaving the great commission as Matthew 
has it. But the statements of both Matthew and 
Mark, so far as the command to baptize is concerned, 
are the same ; and this is all we seek, at this time, to 
show — ^viz., that Jesus commands his disciple to 
teach 'and baptize all the human race, the teaching 
being "to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded YOU/' 

Now, as this baptism is to be performed by the 
disciples of Jesus, we can see that it is a water bap- 
tism, and not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It 
was after this, on the day of Pentecost, when the 
baptism of the Holy Spirit occurred (Acts ii. 1-4), 
separate and distinct from water baptism. While, 
therefore, we have not to do with the baptism of John 
in the Christian dispensation, yet we do have a 
water baptism commanded of Jesus himself in the 
great commission. The Christian world should 
realize that we have two baptisms in the kingdom 
of heaven : We have the water baptism, and we have 
the great baptism of the Holy Spirit. Men adminis- 
ter the water ; the Holy Spirit is the gift of God. 



52 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

Now the word translated "baptize" in the baptism 
of John and the baptism of the great commission and 
the baptism of the Holy Spirit is identically the same 
word in the original — all derived from the Greek word 
haptizo. It will be seen, therefore, that when tlie 
word occurs again in the book we must look to some- 
thing else besides the word itself to determine which 
one of these baptisms is meant. We must necessa- 
rily go to the context, and consider all the surround- 
ing circumstances, to determine which one of the 
baptisms is referred to in the text. It will not do 
to consider every baptism mentioned as a water 
baptism. Because of a failure to distinguish these 
two baptisms, many Christians have been led into 
error by attributing ignorantly to the one what 
rightfully belongs to the other. This is specially 
true as to Christian water baptism. Many have at- 
tributed to it what belongs to the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit, ignoring the baptism of the Holy Spirit 
altogether, making water baptism the one baptism 
of the gospel dispensation, or else so obscuring the 
baptism of the Holy Spirit that its office and mis- 
sion are not understood or are overlooked. These are 
great errors, from which Christianity has suffered 
much, and is still suffering. 

According to the statement of John, that the 
Christ should come after him and baptize with the 
Holy Spirit and fire, w^e should expect to find the 
baptism of the Holy Spirit mentioned at least some- 
times in our Testament, and to be the great baptism 
of the new dispensation ; and such it is. But water 
baptism has its office and use as an ordinance in 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 53 

the kingdom, and that we shall presently attempt 
to shov»\ 

The Two Baptisms Separate and Distinct. 

Before we consider tlie two baptisms, we wish to 
show that they are separate and distinct from each 
other, being administered for separate and distinct 
purposes. 

Water baptism is administered by men. The ele- 
ment used is a material substance. We do not read 
that water was ever consecrated or spiritualized for 
baptismal purposes. It could, therefore, cleanse,only 
the outer, or physical, man — which no one claims is 
the object of baptism. A few centuries after Christ 
water was given quite a magical power by some of 
the fathers, and baptismal regeneration was the ac- 
cepted teaching of that day; and there is still an 
effort to consider water baptism and the baptism 
of the Holy Spirit in some way together. To this 
end some teach that the water baptism should al- 
ways follow the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and be 
administered to none who have not received the 
gift of God. But those who hold this doctrine are 
troubled with the fact that Philip, one of the apos- 
tles, baptized the people of Samaria before the Holy 
Spirit had fallen on them. Others teach that it 
should come before the baptism of the Holy Spirit; 
but they find that Peter administered water bap- 
tism after the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the 
house of Cornelius. (xVcts vii.) Others believe 
that the two baptisms come together at one and 
the same time; but they are confronted with both 



54: Tlie Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

the examples just mentioned. We see, therefore, 
that there is no rule about it. Water baptism may 
come before or after or at the same time as the bap- 
tism of the Holy Spirit, if we can just find out when 
it will please God to bestow his gift. But as this 
is an impossibility, the wiser plan is to recognize 
the truth that water is only a material witness, or 
sign, to the world to the remission of sins, and the 
baptism of the Spirit is the regenerating power, or 
new birth. We can witness the remission of sins 
to the world at any time before or after regenera- 
tion. It has, therefore, no connection with the bap- 
tism of the Holy Spirit, and is for a different pur- 
pose. 

Now, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the free 
gift of God, and it is administered through the 
Christ. In Acts ii. 33 we read of Christ : ^'Therefore 
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having 
received of the Father the promise of the Holy 
Spirit, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see." 

If we have passed into a state of justification, and 
have a change of mind and attitude toward God, 
we ought to proclaim that fact by the water witness. 
But there is still behind the gift of God the baptism 
that is administered through Christ — that is, the 
entrance of the Divine Spirit into the human life, to 
unite it to Christ and transform it into his image. 
The Holy Spirit is not material, but is a divine 
person ; not an element like water, or an influ- 
ence, to be used by men for baptismal purposes. It 
is God's Holy Spirit coming down into the life of 
men. 



The ^V(nJ to the Kingdom of Heaven. 55 

We see, therefore, that the two baptisms are total- 
ly dissimilar aud entirely distinct. 

What Is Water Baptism? 

St. John tells us there are three which bear testi- 
mony : the Spirit, the water, and the blood. (1 John 
V. 8.) Commentators are agreed that the water 
witness is water baptism. 

There are three water baptisms mentioned in the 
New Testament : 

1. The baptism nnto (els) Moses, called "Moses's 
baptism." 

2. The baptism unto (eis) repentance (Matthew) 
or the baptism of repentance for (eis) remission of 
sins (Mark), called "John's baptism." 

3. The baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus 
or Jesus Christ for (eis) remission of sins, called 
"Christian baptism." 

It will be noted that the Greek word eis is trans- 
lated "for" in some instances and "unto" in others, 
though it is used in the same connection and about 
the same subject-matter. Suppose we translate it 
"for" uniformly, and we will have (1) "a baptism 
for Moses," (2) "a baptism for repentance or of 
repentance for the remission of sins," (3) "a bap- 
tism in the name of the Lord Jesus or Jesus Christ 
for the remission of sins." Then Ave can begin to 
realize that the baptisms were on account of these 
things : great witnesses of them. No one would say 
that the baptism for or unto Moses was Moses; nei- 
ther should he say that a baptism unto or for re- 



56 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

pentance WicS repentance, or that a baptism in the 
name of the Lord Jesus or Jesus Christ for the re- 
mission of sins was the remission of sins. If it is 
not these things, what is it? St. Jolm says it is a 
witness. A witness of Avhat? A witness giving tes- 
timony concerning these things to the world. 

Now the Greek word eis has several other mean- 
ings besides "for" and "unto." It often means "in" 
and "into;" it also means "on account of," "with a 
view to," "for the use of," etc. If we use these mean- 
ings, we can begin to see more clearly the nature of 
this witness in the great religious movements of 
Moses, John, and Christ. Now ^et us see what water 
baptism witnesses in each of these movements: 

Moseses Baptism (Baptizo). 

The children of Israel were leaving the borders 
of Egypt, were severing forever their citizenship 
with Pharaoh, and were giving up the fleshpots of 
Goshen. God was now to be their king, Moses their 
leader, and Canaan their future home. Their way 
led through the sea, the waters of which parted at 
their coming, the soft earth drying and hardening 
before their feet. Through this opening they 
marched, over two million people — men, women, and 
children — under the leadership of Moses, believ- 
ing and trusting in God. As a witness of their faitli, 
loyalty, and separation unto Moses, God in the very 
face of the Egyptian hosts moved forward the cloud, 
which had obscured the march, and Israel was bap- 
tized in (en) the cloud and in (en) the sea unto 




K eg 
CO pi 

H .3 



(57) 



58 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

(for) Moses. (1 Cor. x. 1.) The word "baptize" 
here is derived from the Greek haptizo — the same 
as the word "baptize" in John's and Christian bap- 
tism ; and whether this was a real or symbolical 
baptism, it shows distinctly that baptism has a mean- 
ing. It witnessed to the world that Israel was no 
longer in bondage, bnt was a free people consecrated 
to Moses's leadership. 

JoHN^s Baptism (Baptizo). 

John said of Jesus: "I knew him not; but that 
he should be made manifest [be disclosed or made 
known] to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing 
with water," (John i. 31.) John preached repent- 
ance or reformation of the people as the prepara- 
tion for the manifestation of the Christ, and his 
baptism was a witness of its profession. The people 
heard the voice of John, and confessed their sins, 
and witnessed to the world, through baptism, their 
profession of reformation or repentance. He re- 
buked the Pharisees and Sadducees, who brought 
no fruits of their change of life, or conversions to 
his teachings; but administered baptism to Jesus, 
who was in the condition of reformation without 
changing to it, being without sin ; and by his water 
baptism and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon 
Jesus, he was enabled to manifest or disclose him 
as the Christ, the Son of the living God. (John i. 
33.) John's work was done when Jesus was made 
known as the Christ: his baptism had fulfilled its 
object. 




FRANK V. DUMOND. 



THE MANIFESTATION OF THE CHRIST. (John i. 31.) 

" That he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing 
with water. . . . He that sent me to baptize with water, the same 
said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining 
on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Spirit." (John i. 31-33.) 

(59) 



60 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

John baptized in (en) the wilderness, in (en) Jor- 
dan, in (en) Enon, in (en) Bethabara or Bethany. 

Christian Water Baptism (Baptizo). 

On the day of Pentecost Peter, in answer to the 
inquiry, ''Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 
said, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in 
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, 
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." 
Three thousand people gladly received his word and 
w^ere baptized and that same day were added unto 
them. (Acts ii. 38-41.) 

We see that the Christian baptism was in the 
name of Jesus Christ or the Lord Jesus. Jesus had 
commanded that it be in the name of the Father 
and the Son and the Holy Sjjirit, and it is univer- 
sally done so now; but the apostle Peter no doubt 
considered that a baptism in the name of Jesus Christ 
or the Lord Jesus comprehended the w^hole Trinity. 
The word "Christ" or "Lord" attached to the name of 
Jesus undoubtedly embodied the whole Godhead in 
the mind of Peter. The baptism was administered 
as a witness of the remission of sins or state of jus- 
tification, as we have already explained. The Greek 
preposition eis means "for" or "on account of" or 
"with a view to" the remission of sins, and the apos- 
tle John says it was a Avitness. 

Thus we see that Christian water baptism is to 
be in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Spirit, and is (eis) with a view to or on account of 
the remission of sin. It testifies of our belief in 
Jesus as the Son of God, which carries with it the 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 61 

acceptance of God's Word, with its teachings of re- 
pentance (reformation), as the foundation of Chris- 
tian life; and conversion, or change to right living 
(state of justification), as essential to the remission 
(sending away) or blotting out of sin. The bap- 
tism is the witness of this condition — the outward 
declaration, sign, or expression of it. 

It was thus that water baptism was instituted 
as a public witness in the three great religious move- 
ments of the world. 

Of those baptized unto Moses, only two of the bap- 
tized adults reached the Promised Land (Caleb and 
Joshua). All the rest, including Moses himself, dis- 
pleased God, and w^ere not permitted to enter. Per- 
haps many of the little children fpaidia) reached 
Canaan safely, after a devious journey through the 
wilderness. Only a few of tliose baptized by John 
entered the kingdom of heaven, and doubtless many 
of them helped the Sanhedrin to hound Jesus along 
the streets of Jerusalem to the cross. 

In our Christian dispensation many have been 
baptized for the remission of sins whose lives were 
never reformed, who never complied with the con- 
ditions which entitled them to be baptized, the water 
being made a false witness of a condition that never 
existed ; hence the gift of the Spirit w^as denied and 
their minds were never renewed. 

The Mode of Water Baptism. 

Discussions of baptism should always be separate 
and distinct from discussions of the mode of bap- 
tism, because wherever the mode is mentioned 



62 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

there arises a conflict among Christians, which over- 
shadows the subject of baptism itself and prevents 
that calm consideration of the subject which it 
merits at the hands of all true believers in Christ. 

We do not deny the right of any Church to decide 
for itself what persons shall constitute its mem- 
bership, or to teach what it considers the 
proper mode of baptism or to declare who in its 
assembly shall receive the rite of baptism ; nor do we 
object to the faithful ministry of God preaching 
their honest convictions on this or any other sub- 
ject. We merely make the suggestion that discus- 
sions of the mode should be apart from discus- 
sions of the subject of baptism. In this matter the 
author speaks from an experience of forty years' 
membership in a Christian Church. During this 
period he has heard sermon after sermon presuma- 
bly on the subject of baptism, when in truth they 
were all on the subject of the mode of Ijaptism, leav- 
ing the Church ignorant of the subject of baptism 
itself. Books on baptism also lean the same way. 
Now, we have no record that Jesus ever spoke of 
the mode of water baptism, though he gave his dis- 
ciples the great commission to go into all the world 
and teach or instruct or make disciples of all the 
nations, "baptizing them in the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." None of the 
apostles themselves ever spoke of the mode of bap- 
tism. Those mostly interested in the subject only 
claim to know w^hat the mode is from the instances 
of baptism given in the New Testament and the 
meaninisf of the word in the Greek languase. For 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 63 

these reasons, being desirons of teaching what bap- 
tism is, for the good of all Churches and all Chris- 
tians, and above all for those inquiring what to do 
to be saved, we omit discussing the mode of baptism 
in this book. 

Water Baptism Should Be Immediately 
Administered. 

When one is in the condition to be baptized with 
water, baptism should be immediately administered. 
The fact should be witnessed or published at once 
to the world. In all the examples of Christian bap- 
tism in the Bible there was no waiting for any for- 
malities whatever or for any convenient season. 
These baptisms began on the day of Pentecost, when 
three thousand people were immediately baptized 
and added to the ranks of the discii)les that day. 
The Holy Spirit fell on the people at the house of 
Cornelius, Peter immediately mentioned the water 
baptism, and they were baptized. 

Ananias said to Paul: "Why tarriest thou? 
arise, and be baptized,'' etc. It is said of the jailer 
and his house: "He took them the same hour of the 
night, and washed their stripes ; and was baptized, he 
and all his straightway.'' The Samaritans believed 
Philip's preaching, and were baptized. The baptism 
is mentioned in the same sentence with the belief. 
The eunuch said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is 
the Son of God," and he was immediately baptized. 

All the baptisms mentioned seem to have followed 
immediately, and not a single instance is given 



64 The Way to tJw Kingdom of Heaven, 

where any delay is indicated. The transition 
toAvard spirit life is quick. Moral reformation is 
the work of a moment, as we have already shown. 
When one is in the proper condition, there should 
be an immediate preparation to administer the "wit- 
ness of it." If the proper ministrant is not con- 
venient, he should be sought for; and if he cannot 
come, one might go to him. We have known minis- 
ters in all the Churches to put off baptisms until 
many can be baptized together. It makes a beautiful 
array, and is a worthy object of Christian triumph ; 
but while we wait one might be taken sick or die, 
or circumstances might call the person away. It 
matters not what mode is used, we repeat : Let there 
be no delaj^s. Publish the reformation ; let the world 
know that another has turned again to the fold. 

Eemarks on Christian Water Baptism. 

Some call water baptism an "ordinance," and are 
satisfied with this definition of it; but the word 
"ordinance" only means a rule established by au- 
thority — a law, an edict, decree, rescript. It is a 
command of the great commission to go into all 
the world and baptize. And so water baptism is an 
ordinance; but to recognize it as a command should 
not displace the desire to know what its objects and 
uses are. Therefore, in Churches where baptism Is 
i-ecognized as an ordinance (and it should be recog 
nized in all Churches as such) there should be still 
taught its meaning and purpose as is revealed in 
God's book. Some call water baptism a sign of 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 65 

regeneration or the new birth ; but a sign is that 
by which anj-thing is made known or represented 
in a typical or emblematic manner — symbolic. Bap- 
tism is a sign, but it is a sign of a profession of a 
condition of justification which brings remission of 
sin. (Acts iii., etc.) If it is a sign of the new birth, 
it is a sign that the person professes to be in the 
condition of sins remitted — the justified state in 
which the new birth takes place. At the house of Cor- 
nelius, if Peter made it a sign of the new birth that 
had come to that house^ then Philip made it a sign 
to the Samaritans that it would come to that people, 
for he used it in advance of the regeneration. 

The old dispensation was worked by signs and 
symbols, all of which were abolished in the "rending 
of the veil." In the new dispensation we have Christ 
himself — the realization of all the symbolic teach- 
ings. Therefore, in the use of signs and symbols 
in the new dispensation we should be careful lest 
we value the sign above what it signifies. If we 
consider water baptism as a symbol of spiritual 
baptism, we should look rather upon it as an empty 
symbol, and ever be looking to the thing itself (re- 
generation) as that w^hich should receive our atten- 
tion and consideration. 

The Lord established the bread and fruit of the 
vine as a symbol, but it was because he had gone 
away. It was to keep the sacrifice in remembrance 
until he came again. But water as a sign of regener- 
ation or the new birth, if such, should not be consid- 
ered as more than an outward expression of the 
preparation for God's gift, which is independent of 
5 



66 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

it. Like a smile on the face publishing a joyous 
heart, it only proclaims to the world the condition 
of justification, which is a condition precedent to 
the gift of the Spirit or the regeneration. The wa- 
ter does not make the condition. The condition is 
totally independent of the water. No doubt mil- 
lions have reached that condition on their deathbed, 
and, without water, are saved as the thief was. The 
water simply witnesses the condition to the world. 
It is the witness of which John speaks, and signi- 
fies that our sins have been pardoned (or paid) 
through the vicarioiis sacrifice of the Christ. 

All idolatry is the result of symbolisms. Venus, 
th© goddess, symbolized love ; Morpheus, the god, sig- 
nified sleep. So we may idolize the bread and the 
fruit of the grape in the Lord's Supper; and we 
may idolize the water of the pool or the fount or 
the pitcher, and worship, like the heathen, at the 
shrine of that which is only a sign, a witness, or a 
symbol. 

Some call baptism a ceremony of dedication or 
a consecration — that is, a ceremony setting a person 
or thing apart to a sacred use — a solemn appropria- 
tion, as the dedication of Solomon's temple or the 
devoting the person or thing to the service and wor- 
ship of God. If baptism is thought to mean this, 
we must not be unmiijdful of the fact that Simon 
Magus was baptized, and yet denounced by the apos- 
tle Philip as being in the gall of bitterness and in 
the bond of iniquity (Acts vii. 23), showing that 
water has no power to dedicate or consecrate one 
to God. 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 67 

Others claim that water baptism is a purifying or 
cleansing. They quote this fact about the Jews at the 
time of Christ, when they came from the market: 
^'Except they wash [baptize, from 'baptizo'], they 
eat not. And many other things there be, which 
they have received to hold, as the washing [baptiz- 
ing, from 'baptizo] of cups, and pots, brazen vessels, 
an3 of tables." In Luke ii. 39 and Matthew xv. 2 we 
have similar baptisms. 

Now, it is evident that these purifyings of such 
furniture as tables, couches, cups, hands, etc., did 
imi^ly ceremonial cleansing or purifying of the Jew- 
ish people. It is also true that the word is the same 
baptizo that is used in speaking of John's and the 
Christian and Moses's baptisms; yet it can be readi- 
ly seen that this Jewish custom does not affix a mean- 
ing to Christian baptism. Water baptism does not 
cleanse or purify anybody; it is the purest imagi- 
nation to think so. In the Christian dispensation 
the Holy Spirit alone cleanses and purifies. We 
have already defined the true object of water bap- 
tism to be in the Christian dispensation a witness 
of the full remission of sins through Christ. There 
must be a reformation and a change of thought and 
action, and it is the office of water baptism to pub- 
lish or proclaim or witness that fact to the world 
as one of the three witnesses to the divine truth in 
the earth. 

The Meaning op Baptism in the Greek. 

Sectarian writers have spent much time in cull- 
ing from the Greek language all references to bap- 



68 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

tisms for the purpose of sustaining their views as 
to the mode of baptism. But we should not lose 
sight of the fact that the Greeks were a heathen 
peoi}le. who had thousands of gods and goddesses, 
and who had no idea of our God or our Christ nor 
of his office and mission in the world. They did 
not understand spiritual things as they are revealed 
in God's book nor the shades of thought touching 
their interpretation. It is for this reason that the 
Bible must be its own interpreter in matters for- 
eign to the Grecian mind and si^eech. Baptism is 
one of these things. It is a Christian rite, with a 
Christian meaning and use. So whatever it may be 
in the Greek, when it was adopted in our sacred 
speech it must have the sacred meaning applied. 
We have followed this course in our definitions of 
baptism : that water baptisms are signs or witnesses 
of the states or conditions they re^jresent, and the 
baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a witness or sign 
at all, but is the descent of the Holy Spirit into the 
lives of men to cleanse them, renewing or regener- 
ating the spirit life. Of these things the Greeks 
knew , nothing, and therefore any meaning they ap- 
plied to the term "baptism" cannot supersede these 
teachings of the Bible. 

As to the meaning of baptism, it is far better to 
study the instances of baptism revealed in God's book 
than to study the controverted application of the 
word in classic Greek. We have omitted the consid- 
eration of the mode of baptism in this book, and will 
not consider the bearing of the Greek meaning on 
that questiouo 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 69 

Of course where the Bible does not define its own 
use of a Greek word, it is right and proper to give 
it its Greek meaning. Vs^e have found much aid by 
following this course in this book. But in any mat- 
ter where the Bible interprets for itself we must 
follow the Bible. For example: The word Logos 
means in the Greek a word, a thing uttered, speech, 
language, announcement, discourse, and words of 
similar import, and it is ordinarily used in this sense 
(Matt. xxii. 15) ; but Logos in John i. 1 is defined 
by the Bible itself to be Jesus the Christ, because the 
Greeks had no conception of the divine Word — the 
anointed One of God. So when we speak of the Log- 
os we do not mean a word, etc., but w^e refer to the 
Son of God. 

We have said this much upon the subject of water 
baptism in the kingdom of heaven because it is im- 
portant that Christians understand its object and 
office. Faith, as we have said, opens the heavenlies 
to us; and by repentance through this faith we at- 
tain to the state of justification not by works, but 
by the blood of Jesus Christ (Kom. v. 9), and it is 
God that justifieth us (Kom. viii. 33). When we 
shall have done Avhat God commands us to do, then 
we will receive God's promises of justification or 
remission of sin. By water baptism we publish and 
proclaim to the world this condition. This, we said, 
is all man can do. 

Our Churches have made water baptism their 
initiatory rite, and they can do so because it is a 
visual sign of the state of justification. The person 
is baptized, proclaims his abandonment of sin, and 



70 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

should then assemble himself with the people of 
God. We believe that all justified people should 
be in the Chiirch ; but each Church is the judge of 
its own membership. 

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

One in the justified state is in proper relations 
to God for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, 
and such will be given in God's good time and as 
it pleases him to bestow it. Peter said at Pentecost : 
^'Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Man 
cannot control the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Je- 
sus said: ''The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every 
one that is born of the Spirit." 

We will now consider this baptism of the Holy 
Spirit as wholly apart from water baptism. It is 
rej)resented by the derivatives of 'baptizo, the same 
as water baptism. It is that which unites us with 
Christ in mystical union. 

Jesus said : "I am the vine, ye are the branches." 
This teaches us that each individual life must be 
united to him in mystical union. 

St. Paul tells us how this is accomplished: ^'By 
one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." After 
this union is effected, then, St. Paul says, "Now ye 
are the body of Christ, and members in particular;" 
or, as the Kevised Version has it : "Now ye are the 
body of Christ, and severally the members thereof." 
(1 Cor. xii. 13-27.) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 71 

St. Paul says further, '^There is one body and 
one Spirit/' and these he has just mentioned. He 
also says ''there is one baptism." (Eph. iv. 5.) This 
one baptism is the baptism of the one Spirit, which 
unites us into the one body. We know this because 
Paul has just told us that ''by one Spirit we are all 
baptized into one body." 

John the Baptist, as we have seen, foretold of this 
wonderful baptism of the Spirit. He said : "I indeed 
baptize you with water unto [eis]. repentance: but 
he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose 
shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall baptize you 
with the Holy Spirit, and with fire." 

St. Peter, when the Holy Spirit fell on all them 
which heard the word at the house of Cornelius, 
said: "Then I remembered the word of the Lord, 
how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; 
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." 

The disciples of Jesus were baptized on the day 
of Pentecost with the Holy Spirit; but we have no 
record of their being baptized with water — showing 
the greater importance of this Spirit baptism. 

St. John, speaking of water baptism, says : "Jesus 
himself baptized not, but his disciples baptized." 

So, then, from the very beginning of Christianity 
the baptism of the Spirit has been, and is now, 
Christ's one baptism. 

Now, when we consider our union with Christ, 
we must bear in mind that he was incarnated in 
human life and born into the world to die as a sub- 
stitute for man and to make a propitiatory sacri- 
fice of himself for sin. Any union, therefore, with 



72 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Jesus as the Christ we would expect to include 
the substitutionary transaction or be related to it 
in some way. That was the act of the Christ which 
accomplished man's redemption, and the crowning 
act of his office in this world. It is in connection 
with this thought that St. Paul says : "Know ye not, 
that so many of us as Avere baptized into. Jesus Christ 
were baptized into his death? Therefore we are 
buried with him by baptism into death." (Rom. vi. 
3, 4.) In Colossians ii. 12 he also adds : "Buried with 
him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with 
him through the faith of the operation of God." 
The clause, "therefore we are buried with him by 
baptism into death," is made clearer by the Revised 
Version, which renders it, "We were buried there- 
fore with him through baptism into death." Dr. 
Young, in his translation of the Bible, makes it still 
clearer. He says: "We were buried together, then, 
with him, through the baptism into the death." 
The last part of the clause in the Greek is: dia 
(through) tou (the) 'baptismatos (baptism) eis 
(into) ton (the) thanaton (death). The baptism 
and the death referred to the baptism and death just 
mentioned — the baptism of the Spirit. In consider- 
ing this clause we must also not overlook the word 
"therefore," with which it begins. The word "there- 
fore," Mr. Webster says, "refers to something pre 
viously stated, and means for that or this reason." 

From this exposition of St. Paul's declaration 
we can see that it is one connected statement, mean- 
ing that those who are baptized into Christ by the 
Spirit were baj^tized into his death, and therefore 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 73 

(for that reason) were buried with him through the 
baptism into the death, wherein also thej- arose with 
him through faith in the energy or power of God, 
which manifests itself in the new birth, or spiritual 
resurrection. 

We see that the mystical union with Christ re- 
lates us spiritually to his "death, burial, and resur- 
rection" — the substitutionary transaction which, as 
we have said, was the chief object of the Christly 
oflfice on earth, and which made possible the king- 
dom of heaven on earth. But it is also a union with 
the Christ life, just as the branch is united to the 
vine. We are to abide in him and draw spiritual 
power from the energy he imparts, and through 
that energy we bear the fruits of righteousness and 
in the end have everlasting life. 

The Resurrection through the Baptism 
OF the Spirit. 

We are not only united with Christ as his body 
in which he dwells by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, 
and are baptized into his death, and therefore buried 
with him into that death; but we are risen with 
him through the faith of the operation of God. (Col. 
ii. 12.) The word translated "risen" is sunegeiro, 
from sun^ "together with," and egeiro, "to arouse, 
to awaken, to raise from the dead, to restore to life." 
The word translated "operation" (energeis) means 
"working of, the communication of energy, calling 
into activity." With these definitions in the mind, 
we can easily see the meaning of St. Paul's state- 




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The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 75 

ment that in tbe baptism of the Holy Spirit the 
Colossians were raised from the dead — restored to 
life through faith b}- the communication of energy 
or life by God. The Holy Spirit was poured out 
upon them, and in that gracious baptism the divine 
power imparted to the human life, dead in sins, the 
new life — called "regeneration or new birth" — 
whereby it attained to newness of life in Christ 
Jesus. 

Paul tells us in the very next verse of the death 
from w^hich we arise. He says: "And you, being 
dead through your trespasses and the uncircum- 
cision of your flesh, you, I say, did he make alive 
together with him [Christ], having forgiven us all 
our trespasses." Paul afterwards said to Titus: 
"He saved us by the washing of regeneration [new 
birth], and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he 
poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our 
Saviour; that, being [or having been] justified by his 
grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope 
of eternal life." 

The washing of the new birth was the cleansing 
of the Spirit: that cleansing that accompanies the 
new birth. The renewal of the Holy Spirit is the 
raising from death, the restoration to life. Hence, 
after this baptism we should walk forth in newness 
of life. (Eom. vi. 4.) By water baptism we pro- 
claimed the full remission of sin through Christ; 
by the baptism of the Holy Spirit we are united to 
Christ as the branch to the vine, and partake of his 
death, burial, and resurrection, coming up to new- 
ness of life through him. 



76 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

The peculiar work of the Holy Spirit is to renew 
the spirit life of a man, called '^regeneration." The 
Greeks used this word to express the changed state 
of the earth in spring. We behold all nature before 
us bereft of the activities of life; there are no blos- 
soms, no fruits; but suddenly the spirit of spring 
passes over the earth, and what a change we behold ! 
there is new life in everything, there are blossoms, 
and there is fruit. So the Spirit of God finds us in 
a state of spiritual desolation, inactivity, and death ; 
He passes into us and renews our spiritual life, and 
produces in us the peaceful fruits of righteousness. 

David likens the renewed man to a tree planted 
by the rivers of water. (Ps. i.) When instanta- 
neous moral reformation takes place, then there 
flows in instantaneously the Spirit of God. 

The Mode op the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

Those who speak of the mode of the baptism of 
the Holy Spirit do not, we think, have a due regard 
to the subject of which they speak. The Holy Spirit 
is a divine person, and not an influence or an ele- 
ment of any nature with which or into which bap- 
tism may be had as with water. The Holy Spirit 
is the third Person in the glorious Trinity, and equal 
with the Father and the Son. The baptism of the 
Holy Spirit is the descent of this divine Person into 
the human life. Human speech is a vehicle of 
thought, a means of communication, and God in 
communicating with man must of necessity speak 
to him in human language. He has revealed to us 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 77 

how the Holy Spirit "descended" on Jesns, "light- 
ing" upon him, and how he ai)peared unto the apos- 
tles cloven tongues like as of fire, and "sat upon" each 
of them, and "filled them;" how the Holy Ghost 
"fell on" all of them which heard the word at the 
house of Cornelius; and how he. had not yet fallen 
upon the converts of Philip in Samaria, and through 
Joel he had foretold when th^ Holy Spirit should 
be poured out upon all flesh; besides other similar 
references. But by such words as "poured out,*' 
"sat upon," "fallen upon," "filled," etc., does God de- 
sign to teach us a mode by which he is limited in the 
baptism of the Spirit? Does he design to teach us 
that the Holy Spirit is poured down on a human 
head or sprinkled upon it, or does he intimate that 
one is taken up and immersed into the divine Per- 
son? Does not the baptism of the Holy Spirit mean 
this only to an unprejudiced mind, that the Holy 
Spirit descends upon the human life and enters it 
and thereby unites it to Christ — to God in an actual 
mystical union with the Christ life — and by the pow- 
er and operation of God raises the man from a state 
of death to newness of life? In regard to the Holy 
Spirit, we must use baptism in a sense apart from 
the mode of water baptism. 

This shows conclusively that the word "baptize" 
Cbaptizo), as used in the Bible, has a meaning and 
a use separate and distinct from its modal signifi- 
cance in the Greek; and no matter what mode we 
may draAV from it, we must not be unmindful that 
baptism itself is separate and distinct in its signifi- 
cations from all modes. 




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The Waij to the Kingdom of Heaven. 79 

We all know what a star is in the Greek ; however, 
the stars that John beheld in the Master's hand as he 
stood among the candle stands were not the lumina- 
ries of the heaven, but stood for the seven min- 
isters of the Churches of Asia. So we have just 
learned that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not 
what the word means in the Greek, but is the de- 
scent of the Holy Spirit into the lives of men ; 
and bj the word "descent" he simply means that 
he has come down from above to dwell with men 
and make them new creatures in Christ Jesus. 







'* «• . ^ ■ '"^i' I'.* Hull 




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XI. 

THE KIVEK OF LIFE AND ITS LIVING 
WATEK. 

St. John tells us of a Elver of the Water of Life, 
clear as a crystal, proceeding out of the throne of 
God and the Lamb. (Kev. xxii. 1.) 

This is recognized b}" all Bible scholars as a rep- 
resentation of the abundance of the divine life with 
which the children of men are blessed. It is a mani- 
festation of the Holy Spirit in the earth. He does 
not come as a little rill or a brooklet or a rivulet; 
but the symbol of his coming is the mighty river, 
clear and beautiful, surrounded with health-giving 
trees, which beaiL fruit every month of the year, and 
whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. 

Of this life-giving water, Jesus spoke to the woman 
of Samaria. The woman knew what water was, and 
Jesus wanted to tell her by comj^arison what spirit 
was. So he uses the term "water" to represent it 
by adding the Greek word Zoe (pronounced Zoay), 
making it Zoe water, or life water — the water of 
life. Water satiates the thirst incident to animal 
life, but as Jesus said: "Whosoever drinketh of it 
shall thirst again." Not so with the water of life, 
for the Master says : "Whosoever drinketh of it shall 
never thirst again." 

He tells us also of this water. He says : "He that 
6 (81) 



82 The Way to the Kmgdom of Heaven. 

believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from 
within him shall flow rivers of living water. But this 
spake he of the SPIRIT, which they that believed on 
him were to receive." (John vii. 38, 39.) 

The thirst which it satisfies is that of which the 
Saviour speaks in the Sermon on the Mount : "Blessed 
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness." As to who may drink it,- Isaiah said: "Ho, 
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." 
(Isa. Iv. 1.) And Jesus says: "If any man thirst, let 
him come unto me, and drink." (John vii. 37.) 
In Eevelation we read : "Whosoever will [or is will- 
ing], let him take the water of life freely." (Chap- 
ter xxii.) Isaiah, in referring to these wells of spirit- 
ual water, says : "With joy shall ye draw water out 
of the wells of salvation." 

"Give me to drink of this water" should be the 
prayer of every human being. 



XII. 
JESUS AND NICODEMUS, 

Nicodemus, who was a ruler of the Jews, came to 
Jesus by night, no doubt to talk with him about the 
kingdom of heaven, which Jesus was establishing in 
the earth. 

Jesus said to him : "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king- 
dom of God." In the Revised Version the words 
"born again" are rendered "born anew;" and the 
Syriac New Testament gives the same rendering. 
The Greek word anothen means "from above, again, 
anew." The translators of the King James Bible 
select the word ^'agaia" to express the meaning of 
the original, and the revisers take the word "anew." 
Some translators take the word "above." Nicode- 
mus seems to have interpreted the word as "again," 
applying it to the natural birth. Jesus tells him not 
to marvel or be surprised at the statement that he 
must be born again. Said he : "That which is born 
of the Spirit [Pneumatos] is spirit [p?ieitma]." He 
directs his mind from the natural to the spiritual. 
Then Jesus explains this wonderful spirit birth. He 
said: "The wind bloweth where it listeth [chooseth, 
will], and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst 
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is 
every one that is born of the Spirit [Pneumatos]. ^^ 

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JESUS AND NICODEMUS. 
(Necessity of the New Birth.) 



(84) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 85 

Jesus here teaches that spirit birth is a reality, just 
as real i:s natural birth; but it comes as a free gift, 
it comes as the wind comes. We see evidences of the 
passing wind : it fans our cheek in the gentle zephyr ; 
it sighs in the pines; it rattles the panes and roars 
in the storm ; and yet we do not see it. But no man 
doubts that the wind blows. So it is with the spirit 
birth. We do not see it; but we see the evidences 
of it. In physical birth we see that there is phys- 
ical life — the child physically lives. In spiritual life 
we see that the man spiritually lives. As another 
expresses it, he loves and hopes and aspires and feels 
the vital reality of the unseen eternal verities. 

This new birth, this being born again or anew, is 
bringing again spirit life into the lost soul. The new 
birth takes place in the baptism of the Holy Spirit 
already so fully explained. One thus born anew is 
ready for the realization of spirit life with God in 
the temple of the Holy Spirit. 




RAPHAEL. 



(86) 



XIIT. 

THE GEE AT TEMPLES OF THE EARTH, AND 
THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

Solomon erected under the divine guidance a mag- 
nificent temi)le at Jerusalem; but the glory of it, 
though far-famed among the nations, is not com- 
parable to the temple of the Holy Spirit, which 
God not only plans but builds. Hiram and his 
workmen were mighty craftsmen, but God displayed 
more skill in planning the human eye, the window 
of his temple, than all the plans their ''trestle board'' 
contained. Raphael was a great master among the 
painters of earth, but the beautiful colorings in his 
pencil ings were mere imitations of the tints God 
has placed in the flowers. Michael Angelo was a 
master among the sculptors; but the ideal images 
his deft hands traced in the fair marble of his beau- 
tiful land were but the feeble awakening of powers 
that man possesses only because of his relationship 
to God. M.an is great only as he is inspired from 
above or borrows from nature her secrets and ap- 
plies them, and the creatures of his best imagina- 
tions and fancies are built upon visions of something 
that God has made. It may be a form in a fleeting 
cloud or a form liid in the growth of a tree or a flower, 
a wasted mountain or the contour of a landscape. 

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88 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

From somewhere comes the suggestion to bestir the 
creative genius to ideal thought and vision. 

What God does may be imitated, but can never 
be excelled. The temples of earth and their beauti- 
ful adornings, consecrated to the worship of God 
and beloved because God's assemblies are gathered 
there and God's word preached from their altars and 
sacred ministrations of blessed memories have there 
been ofttimes celebrated, are the temples of God; 
but not the temples in which God dwells. God dwells 
not in temples made with hands. Man may build 
costly houses and adorn them with all the beauties 
of artistic skill ; he may consecrate them to God and 
call them God's temples ; but the Great Spirit dwells 
no more there than on the hills, in the valleys, in 
the groves, and in the fields. God cannot be incased 
in brick and mortar or in glass or in wood or in 
any of the metals. 

We love our stately buildings whose steeples stand 
like sentinels pointing the world to God and heaven; 
they are consecrated and holy to the uses of our 
Maker. But God has another temple to dwell in on 
earth. It is the human body. Says. Paul : "Know ye 
not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit 
of God dwelleth in you ?'' "What ? know ye not that 
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost ?" 

When the Christian man comes to realize this 
great truth and appreciate properly the position in 
which it places him in his relations to God and man 
• — to God as his ever-present companion, and to man 
as the illustrator of a life united with that of God — 
he can then understand the scriptural injunctions, 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 89 

"Keep yourself unspotted from the world ;" "Set your 
aifection on things above, not on things on the 
earth;" for if it is true that God is Avith us, that 
he inhabits our bodies with us and sups with us 
and communes directly with our spirits, then we 
should partake more of his nature and comprehend 
more of his life and of his kingdom than we do of 
the world or the earth, with which we come in con- 
tact only through our outward senses, and in which 
we are but strangers and pilgrims traveling to the 
grave. In other words, we should give way to the 
leadership of the Spirit and follow his teachings, 
that we may grow more and more Godlike in our 
natures. Not only so ; but we must also guard, pro- 
tect, strengthen, and adorn the temple of God — guard 
and protect it by keeping in subjection our carnal 
appetites and desires, which can be done only by 
abstaining from everything that has the appearance 
of evil about it, and by keeping our thoughts on use- 
ful or pure or lofty themes. We can strengthen it 
by a due and proper exercise of all its parts — the 
mental part by the constant cultivation of the mind, 
the physical part by the proper nourishment and 
use of the body. The spiritual nature does not form 
a part of the temple, but it has its influence upon it 
and shines through it like the light through the shade 
which covers it to mellow its brightness. 

The spirit part of the man is united in mystical 
union with the God life (the Christ life) through 
the baptism of the Holy Spirit ; and if it abides with 
the Spirit, it may sw^eetly rest from the cares of 
life and find refuge and shelter "in the time of the 



90 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

storms." The spiritual part must be cultivated by 
the exercise of the Christian graces and virtues. 

A Christian man cannot afford to follow any other 
course. The apostle says: ''If any man defile the 
temple of God, him shall God destroy." "What 
agreement hath the temple of God with idols? . . . 
Come out from among them, and ye be separate, saith 
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." "They 
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the 
affections and lusts." 

Christ^s Reign Is Over the Spirit Man. 

We have stated that in the kingdom of heaven 
Christ's reign is over the spirit nature of man. Let 
the Christian bear in mind that he has two natures : 
the animal nature and the spirit nature. The animal 
nature is the psyche of the Greeks, and is translated 
generally in our New Testament "soul." The spirit 
nature is represented by the Greeks with the word 
pneuma, and this is translated in the New Testa- 
ment "spirit." Psyche is often spoken of as the flesh, 
and is also alluded to as the natural man. It is not 
subject to those laws of God which are provided for 
the salvation and elevation of the spirit life, and 
we are told that it cannot be. (Rom. viii. 7.) 

Now some teach that in becoming Christians God 
takes out all animal desire and destroys animal pas- 
sion and animal appetite. We should understand 
that the destruction of all these things would be 
almost, if not entire, natural death. Religion does 
not destroy these things, but elevates the spirit na- 
ture of man to a height from which it can control 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 91 

its animal nature. The animal natnre is not subject 
to the moral laws of God, neither can it be; but the 
animal nature is subject to the law of the spirit of 
man, and he will be held accountable if he does not 
govern it. Our animal nature manifests itself quick- 
er in the realm of human life than the spirit nature, 
because physical food is more readiljassimilatedthan 
mental and spiritual food. It is, therefore, expected 
that the animal will exhibit itself first in the life 
of the child. Happily for us, God has veiled child- 
hood in innocency until the spirit nature is sufifi- 
cientlj developed to control the animal nature. This 
supremacy of the animal nature in the newborn is 
not sin ; it is nature. The possession of animal life 
is not sin ; it is God's plan for the making of a man. 
The sinless spirit of the child is developed in animal 
life, which is not condemned of God or governed by 
God's moral laws. But when the animal nature 
reaches the plane of its manifestation, then the spirit 
of the child will have been sufficiently developed to 
cope with the issues of life. 

Then comes the battle, not between God and the 
flesh, but between the spirit of man and the flesh of 
man. *'But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall 
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth 
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; 
for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye 
may not do the things that ye would." (Gal.v.16,17.) 
The tempers and dispositions of the little children 
(paidia) are simply the reflections of animal life; 
not the sins of the redeemed spirit, for it has no sin. 
The spirit (pneuma) is the higher nature of man, the 



92 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

nature over wliich Christ reigns in the kingdom of 
heaven. That is of God. God first made the animal 
man, the nephesh of the Hebrew, and then breathed 
into him the spirit life (chai), and he became chai 
nephesh. So in psyche of the Greeks we have pneuma. 
The Christianity of the twentieth century must 
rise above all creeds and ceremonies, and come to the 
simple Bible truths : 

1. That ''God is a Spirit [Pneuma], and they that 
worship him must worship him in spirit [pneumati] 
and in truth." That our pneuma (spirit) should 
engage our closest attention and be the constant 
desire of our life, spiritual development should be 
the keynote of our battle cry and men must be taught 
in that which brings out the spirit nature. 

2. Psyche J the animal spirit with the fleshly na- 
ture, must be kept in subjection, must be subordi- 
nated to the spirit life; its illicit affinities must be 
smothered. In losing sight of this part of our na- 
ture, we greatly err; for we have with us and in us 
an element that is capable of controlling and de- 
ceiving us; and not only this, but of dragging us 
down, as it were, into the very ''soul of the world." 
We claim that this animal soul is exactly the same 
as the soul of other animal creation, and that it has 
the same origin at least. 

3. We must realize that the pneuma (spirit) is 
just as much a spirit as it ever can be; for death 
only strips from round it "the garments of mortality 
and earth." With our spirit nature united with the 
Christ life, a citizen of Christ's kingdom, we can "sow 
to the Spirit, and of the Spirit reap everlasting life." 



XIV. 

THE TKUE WORSHIP IN THE KINGDOM OF 

HEAVEN. 

True worship is not in the gorgeous displays of 
the temple service, nor in the sacred precincts of any 
particular place, nor in the beautiful and flowery 
language of the mendicant, nor in any particular 
posture of the body; but it is a worship "in spirit 
[pneumatl] and in truth {aletheia, sincerity]." And 
the reason given for this kind of worship is that "God 
is a Spirit [Pneuma]." 

True worship is the homage and adoration of the 
pneuma (spirit) of man to the great Pnetrma (God). 
The mere animal man may strive in vain by prostra- 
tion, by penance, by sanctimonious gesture, well- 
modulated voice, or the infliction of personal torture 
to draw himself toward God in formal service; but 
it is all a farce, pure and simple. Unless there is an 
uplifting of the spirit (pneatna) of man to the com- 
munion, real and sincere, with God, there is no wor- 
ship. Some who look at the pictures which adorn 
this book may feel that we are stressing the spiritual 
side of man ; and so we are, because by that means 
we seek to arouse the reader to a realization of what 
God wishes him to know — "that he is a spiritual 
being, subject to spiritual influences, and that the 
kingdom on earth is purely a spiritual kingdom." 

(93) 




JESUS AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 



(94) 



The Way to tlic Kingdom of Heaven. 95 

Men are studviug occultism to try to reach through 
it the highest spiritual development; but it is to be 
found rather in Christianity, when we realize that 
Christianity (if Ave may dare to speak of it as such) 
is the highest spiritual cult the world has ever known. 

Has occultism given the world a more wonderful 
character than Jesus Christ? Has it ever given the 
world a wiser man than Solomon ? Who has known 
more of the future than St. John, the beloved disci- 
ple? Did not Jesus read the mind of Nathanael and 
of the woman of Samaria? Did not Peter go into a 
trance? Was not Paul caught away into paradise? 
In the silent broodings or meditations of a Chris- 
tian's chamber, when the heart is opened heaven- 
ward and the mind in passivity awaits the inflow of 
heavenly strength and wisdom, man reaches a higher 
state of spiritual power than all occult sciences can 
teach him. 

Turn to the beautiful lesson in John iv. and study 
what Jesus taught the woman of Samaria about the 
worship of God at Jacob's well. The Samaritan 
loved his Mount Gerizim and the Jew his temple at 
Jerusalem; but Jesus turned both away from their 
sacred places to their own inner nature, from which 
should ever ascend the fervor of loving hearts to their 
Maker. 




(96) 



XV, 

THE TRANSFIGURATION OF JESUS, THE 
CHRIST, AND THE TRANSFIGURA- 
TION OF MAN. 

The transfigiiratiou of Jesus on the mountain in 
the presence of Peter, James, and John meant more 
than to show forth his divinity through the wonderful 
change of his face and his garments, the presence of 
those long since departed, and the audible voice of 
his heavenly recognition : it teaches us the wonder- 
ful power of spirit or life to manifest itself in matter. 

The divine spirit in the Master shone in his face 
like the sun, and it whitened his raiment with heav- 
enly radiance. The same word (metamorpheo) used 
to express the transformation of the Christ is used 
also in regard to man. Bat when we speak of the 
transfiguration of men, we do so with due reverence 
to that greater transformation of Him whom we 
honor above all as the Son of the living God; for 
God manifested himself in the transfiguration of the 
Christ, but man in his feebleness cannot transform 
himself. 

Being by the baptism of the Holy Spirit united 
to Christ, and constituting the body of Christ, and 
our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit, and 
our lives being in the loom for God's weaving, we 
are in position to be transformed into the image of 
7 (97) 



98 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

the Master. We are taught in Romans xii. 2 exactly 
where our transformation is manifested. It is not 
in the face to shine as the sun, nor yet in our gar- 
ments to become white as the light; it is not to be 
fashioned according to this world, but to be trans- 
formed (transfigured^ metamorphosed) by the renew- 
ing of the mind. We are also taught in 2 Corin- 
thians iii. 18 how this is to be accomplished: "But 
we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror 
the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same 
image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the 
Spirit." 

The Holy Spirit transforms, renews the mind, and 
from it issue the chaste thought and the pure word. 
If evil thoughts have a lodgment and a nest or hid- 
ing place in the mind, then we must needs be trans- 
figured — have the mind renewed. If obscene words 
pass the lips, then the mind needs renewing. A cor- 
rupt mind poisons the fountain of the life. The 
transformed man is manifested in his works. Let 
others see your good works that they may be con- 
strained to glorify your Father which is in heaven. 
Your goodly deeds and upright conversation are the 
light of the world. Like a city that is set upon a hill, 
they cannot be hid. 

Our Christianity lacks in this element. Men are 
resurrected into life, and are formally received into 
some branch of the visible Church, and often become 
wonderfully satisfied with their spiritual conditions. 
They should be taught that they are now introduced 
into realms of thought and action where progression 
and change should mark every period of life. There 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 99 

must be a transfiguration in that i^rogression from 
gloi'}^ to glory in the divine life. The bud must be 
unfolded into the flower, and that Spirit power and 
illumination be fully realized in the Christian life. 



XVI. 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUAL LIFE. 

When we awake to the realization of the divine 
presence within the temple in which we ourselves 
dwell, and when we realize that the kingdom of heav- 
en (or reign of Christ) in our lives has begun within 
us, then we should know how to proceed with the 
development that should come to every Christian 
life. Happily for us, Jesus himself has given us the 
key to w^hat we now seek in the growth and develop- 
ment of the lily. Jesus said: "Consider the lilies 
of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do 
they spin : and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon 
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." 

The poets consider the. lilies, and find them to ba 
things of beauty, shining with glory. One of them 
sang: 

"Take but the humblest lily of the field, 
And, if our pride will to our reason yield. 
It must by sure comparison be shown 
That on the regal seat great David's son. 
Arrayed in all his robes of type and power, 
Shines with less glory than that simple flower." 



100 TTiG Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

The Christian women consider the lily; and on 
Easter morn they decorate the chancel of the church 
with their beautiful flowers — a sweet offering to a 
risen Christ. 

Our young men and maidens consider the lilies ; and 
when they "talk in flowers and tell in a garland their 
loves and cares/' the lily speaks for them of "delicate 
simplicity." 

But the Master presented us with something great- 
er and deeper than those superficial considerations. 
He spoke of their beautiful garments, and contrasted 
them with the glory of Solomon ; but it was to draw 
our attention to them, that we might learn that 
higher lesson — "how they grow." 

The growth of the lily contains a great revelation 
to us, if we would see it. It beautifully illustrates 
God's providence and unfolds us God's plans of 
building. How does the lily grow? We are 
told that it does not get its growth through toil- 
ing and spinning; but that God "clothed the grass 
of the field." It is God who weaves its growth and 
its beauteous garments. The Master in the same 
sermon gives us the truth again when he says: 
"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit 
unto his stature?" The growth of the human stat 
ure, like the growth of the lily, is of divine weaving. 
God is the mystic weaver of all things : 

"Calmly see the mystic weaver 
Throw his shuttle to and fro ; 
'Mid the noise and wild confusion. 
Well the weaver seems to know 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 101 

What each motion and commotion, 
What each fusion and confusion, 
In the grand results will show." 

But this is only half of the lesson the lilies teach 
us; and if we stop here, we only recognize God as 
the "Potter with his clay.'^ Egypt had gone this far 
long before the days of Moses, for on the bas-reliefs 
at Philre, says Salvolini, ''we see the picture of the 
god Chnoupsis making human limbs in a potter's 
mill charged with clay." The lily teaches us more 
than this: it tells us that while God does the weav- 
ing, it must furnish the material. 

Hence we find it sending its roots down into the 
soil, taking up its watery food; while its leaves are 
sent out into the air to get food in gaseous form; 
and these constitute the material which the Master 
Builder uses to weave its growth and garments. 

Now, suppose we pluck the lily from the soil and 
hang it on the garden fence, would it grow? Would 
there be any weaving of beautiful garment ? No ; it 
would wither and die. The potter would be ready 
to handle the clay, but there would be no clay to 
handle. If we as individuals could realize this great 
truth, we would have something to offer every day 
for the deft hand of the mystic weaver. 

In the light of this teaching we may consider any 
department of life — the reader can enlarge the idea. 
For example, take the human mind. How poor and 
scanty some minds are! There is no growth or de- 
velopment beyond that which results naturally from 
contact with others. The builder has done some- 



102 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

thing with even that; but nothing else having been 
furnished, we behold a pigmy in the race of life. To 
have mental development, as a rule, we must apply 
the mind in search of knowledge. 

But the design of our article is to give this lesson 
in its application to spiritual building. God is ready 
to weave for us beautiful characters and lives if we 
furnish the material. The material here is the deed, 
the word, the thought, which make justice, truth, 
mercy, and right. It is not fame nor honor nor earth- 
ly treasure. Deeds of charity, deeds of mercy, words 
of love, thoughts of the beautiful and good — from 
these can be woven a beautiful life, a magnificent 
temple. He who does no deeds of mercy, speaks no 
words of love, thinks not of the beautiful and the 
good, but who is wrapped up in the things of time 
— its fame, its treasures — how can such a one expect 
the texture of his life to show the web and woof of 
spirit triumph? 

The farmer had just as well plant his seed and 
go into his house and wait for a "smiling providence-' 
to weave for him "the full corn in the ear." The bird 
had just as well sit upon its perch and refuse to gath- 
er the food that the kind Father scatters all around 
for his subsistence, and expect to grow a beautiful 
plumage. 

God is good. May we find his way in the lesson 
of the lily; and when life's race is run, may we be 
able to say : 

"With mercy and with judgment, 
My web of time he wove; 




'•CONSIDER THE LILIES.'' 

(The secret of all growth.) 



(103) 



104 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

And aye, the dews of sorrow 
Were lustered with his love !" 

This is a leaf in nature's book^ and from it the 
Christian must learn that if he brings meager spirit- 
ual materials his spiritual temple will be insignifi- 
cant, but that if he brings an abundance of spiritual 
materials his temple will be beautiful and as re- 
plete as his furnishings will entitle him. 

To open the book of nature, so full of beautiful 
truths, is the lifelong work of a Christian. Nature 
is true to herself, obedient to God under fixed laws, 
and works out a beautiful destiny for all that her 
hands find to do. The laws of nature are not 
more certain in their operations than the laws that 
govern spirit life. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap," is a law applicable to both 
worlds; and the reapings in spirit life are just as 
true as the natural products that give back their 
harvest gleanings. 

We fill our barns with the products of the soil, and 
our earthly temples are builded from the food we fur- 
nish; and so likewise God builds our spirit temple 
from our gatherings — the harvests of our deeds, 
words, and thoughts. 



XVII. 

DIVEKSITY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS— UNITY IN 
THE KINGDOM. 

In 1 Corinthians xii. we are taught that there is a 
diversity of spiritual gifts. These are : a word of wis- 
dom, a word of knowledge, faith, the power of heal- 
ing, the power to work miracles, the discerning of 
spirits, divers kinds of tongues, the interpretation 
of tongues. All these gifts come from the selfsame 
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. 
Not only is there diversity in the operation of the 
Spirit, but there is diversity everywhere. 

God could have made one world large enough to 
hold all his creations; but he did not choose to do it. 
He made over three hundred millions of worlds, dif- 
fering from each other in size and in their orbits, 
producing a wonderful variety of harmony and 
beauty. 

God might have given one color to all the flowers, 
so that the fields and the gardens would look alike; 
but he did not do it. He took the seven colors to 
diversify all the face of nature, and by blend and 
shade he penciled them in delicate beauty, to delight 
the eye and to inspire the admiration of men. 

The trees of the wood might have been given the 
same form of leaf, with the same tint of color, pre- 
senting a view of uniform and unbroken lines; but 

(105) 




(lOG) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 107 

God chose ratlier to make them in different shapes 
and give them different tints, that man might with 
pleasure ^'view the landscape o'er." 

What a diversity there is in our fruits, in our 
soils, in our varieties of water, in our climates, and 
in our vegetable productions! Are not all the ani- 
mals about us different? 

Even in those that appear to be uniform we often 
find a wonderful diversity. Light appears bright 
to our eyes and uniform in its appearance; yet the 
analysis of a single ray of light in the spectroscope 
exhibits the colors of the rainbow : so that if we had 
an enlarged vision we would behold the world 
wrapped, as it were, in all the colors that sometimes 
make beautiful the bosom of the darkest clouds. 
Such our world may appear to the spirit life. 

In the realm of intellect the same variety exists. 
One has a gift for mathematics, another for lan- 
guages, another for oratory, another for drawing, 
on down through the scale of intelligence to the 
reader of yellow-back novels. The faculties of the 
minds of men have also a different degree of develop- 
ment. Some are wonderfully blessed with recollec- 
tion, some with ideality, some with the power of com- 
parison, and some with knowledge of human nature, 
etc. These individualities make men so dissimilar 
that we may say they differ as much as their time- 
pieces. 

Yet, notwithstanding all this variety, we find also 
everywhere unity of design. The variety of flowers 
makes the beautiful garden, the variety of worlds 
makes the beautiful universe, the variety of sounds 



108 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

makes sweet music when blended in harmony, the 
variety of intellect forces men into different channels 
of trades and professions. Thus we perceive that 
variety is not only the spice of life, but it is the only 
basis upon which life could subsist and society can 
be constructed. 

The same principles apply to our Churches, which 
is the application we specially designed to make in 
this chapter. We have many different kinds of 
Churches, to suit different kinds of intellects; but 
all these Churches make but one Church. That man 
who is so ignorant and uncharitable and unchris- 
tian as to imagine that his Church is the only Church 
ought to be pitied and not scorned, for he is a weak 
brother. Let every man love his Church and stand 
by his denomination, and think, if he pleases, it is the 
more excellent way ; but never, never allow the mind 
to conceive the thought that this or that Church is 
the only Church. In 1 Corinthians xii. 13 read this 
truth and be wiser : ^'For by one Spirit are we all bap- 
tized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, 
whether we be bond or free ; and have been all made 
to drink into one Spirit." The study of this twelfth 
chapter will show any unprejudiced mind that it is 
the Spirit of God that gives us these special gifts; 
and it is the baptism of that selfsame Spirit that 
unites all Christians of all Churches into one body. 
Tn the individual Church we should find diversity 
also in spiritual gifts. One member may be made 
wise — that is, can rightly use and exercise knowl- 
edge (sound judgment) ; another has learning, infor- 
mation, etc. ; another has faith predominating in 



The \V(^iiJ to the Kiiujiloiii of Heaven. lOD 

evervtiiing- — a wondeiiul and a happy gift — not 
tlie faith of man, but the second (the higher faith), 
the faith that God gives; anotlier has the gift of 
healing. In this how fallen is the Church from her 
glorious slate I If a Church member should arise in 
one of our churches and sa}', ''Brethren, the Lord has 
blessed me with the power to heal," there would be 
a murmur; and some might sav: ''Poor fellow, he is 
beside himself." Another member ma}^ have the pow- 
er to work miracles, or, as the original better ex- 
presses it, the inworking of powers, the operations 
of mighty works ; another may prophesy, speak from 
the impulse of the Spirit ; another ma}^ discern spir- 
its, the power to discriminate between the evil spirits 
and the good spirits; another may have the gift of 
comprehending speech and another of interpreting 
language. These all make up the perfect Church. 
1 Corinthians xii. 7 reads in the original : "And to 
each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the 
benefit of all." 

There must be unity in the Churches. The pastor 
must, to be successful, find out the gifts of his mem- 
bers, and these must be worked to their best advan- 
tage. Is there one gifted in song? O let the heaven- 
inspired music arise in blessed anthems of praise 
from the lips in the voluntary ! 

If one is gifted in wisdom, let him lead to success ; 
if one is gifted in information, let him teach and 
impart to others the rich learning he possesses; if 
one has the power to heal, send him to the sick; if 
one has faith, the God-given faith that unlocks the 
very jwrtals of heaven, let him go to the altar and 



110 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

call down the blessings; if one is gifted in discrimi- 
nating spirits, let him say whether this or that is of 
the Spirit of God; if one can interpret the hidden 
truths of language, let him preach what he finds to 
be the truth. 

The individual members must know that not all 
the learning is in their heads, nor all the piety in 
their lives. The member who cannot stand a prelude 
of sweet song ought to go out to prayer in the woods 
and pray God to give him the capacity of appre- 
ciating others' gifts. The member who cannot stand 
an exuberance of faith, and looks incredibly upon 
the man peculiarly blessed in this regard, ought to 
pray for his own faith to be enlarged. Harmony, 
unity, charity — these are the three essentials of suc- 
cess in the kingdom of heaven and all Christian 
Churches. 



XVIII. 

TWO CLASSES OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 
ON EAKTH (HEB. V. AND VL). 

We have two distinct classes of Christians. One 
class remain among the rudiments of the first prin- 
ciples of the oracles of God, and are referred to as 
the partakers of milk. The other class are composed 
of those who leave these first principles and go on 
unto perfection, or full growth, and are referred to 
as the users of meat or solid food. 

The first class, the partakers of the milk of the 
word, are said to be inexperienced in the word of 
righteousness, because they are babes. Now, the 
first principles which these are commanded to leave 
in order that they may go on to perfection are clear- 
ly stated in Hebrews vi., and are as follows : 

1. Eepentance from dead works. 

2. Faith toward God. 

3. The teachings of baptism. 

4. The laying on of hands. 

5. The resurrection of the dead. 
G. The eternal judgment. 

Christians who spend their time considering these 
first princij)les and ministers of the gospel who jjreach 
only upon them should not be disappointed if they 
find only the experience of the partakers of milk. St. 
Paul found this condition to exist: Christians dull 

(111) 



112 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

of liearingj who, while they ought to have been teach- 
ers, have need again that they be taught the first 
principles. (Heb. v. 12.) 

Now, as we said, the second class, the users of 
meat or solid food, are those who leave the first prin- 
ciples and go on to perfection. The word translated 
"go on" in the Greek implies a change of position, 
and means to proceed, to make progress. 

So we see a marked difference between those who 
are satisfied to live in the first principles of Chris- 
tianity, whose delights are to be found in the em- 
bracement and discussions of these, and those who, 
having possessed these, press on to the higher life of 
perfection or Christian maturity. 

St. Paul tells us: "Forgetting those things which 
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things 
which are before, I press toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
(Phil. iii. 13, 14.) The word translated "press to- 
ward" means to pursue, to press forward, to en- 
deavor earnestly to acquire. This is the same 
thought expressed in Hebrews of which we have just 
spoken. No Christian must be satisfied with his 
first experience, but must seek that greater develop- 
ment in the Christian life which makes him full 
grown in Christ Jesus ; and our ministers when they 
preach the first principles to sinners must preach 
earnestly the higher life to the Church. 

In Hebrews vi., in this same connection, the apos- 
tle enjoins us not to be sluggish, but to be "imitators 
of them who through faith and patience inherit the 
promises," 



The Way to the Klngdotii of Heaven. 113 

Now we know what faith meant--, but we do not 
alwavs i;ive attention to what thiis patience is. Pa- 
Hence means here ''patient enduring" — tliat is, to 
remain firm and abiding. The Christian who would 
go on to perfection must be firm in his convictions 
of riglit, and must abide in Christ, and have the 
faith adequate for a full and comi>lete salvation from 
all sin. 

The apostle savs in chai)ter v. that the meat, 
or solid food, is for the full grown, "even those 
who by reason of use have their senses [faculties] 
exercised to discern good and evil." 

So we are not only to be firm in the convictions 
of right, but we must study God's ^'ord and listen 
to God's Spirit in his teachings of right and wrong. 
It is for the lack of this study that many w^ho pro- 
fess the higher blessing ignorantly do things which 
bring it into disrepute, and wreck tlieir own faith 
and the faith of others. 

There is no formula of suggestion which has the 
power to elevate the Christian into the higher life. 
It takes genuine faith, firmness ,in righteousness, 
knowledge of good and evil, abidance in Christ. 

Let me not be misunderstood. Christian perfec- 
tion is not gradually attained; time is not one of 
its essential elements. Both in the natural and the 
spirit world it is God that gives the increase. In 
the natural sphere it is by nature's law — the gradual 
unfoldment into maturity. We have "first the blade, 
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 
Not so in spirit life. Here certain conditions produce 
certain results instantaneously. 
8 



114 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

We know by experience that when we repented and 
turned from sin our past sins were blotted out im- 
mediately. And when our sins were blotted out, there 
came seasons of refreshing from the presence of the 
Lord immediately. (See Acts iii. 19.) So when we 
had faith and patient endurance that called down 
the higher blessing, we rejoiced that we might imme- 
diately partake of the solid food of the gospel. 



XIX. 

THE BIBLE THE LAW OF THE KINGDOM OF 
HEAVEN— OUE DUTY TO STUDY IT. 

No man can be a good citizen of any kingdom 
unless he knows its laws; certain it is that he can- 
not observe and keep the laws unless he knows some- 
thing of them. The laws of the kingdom of heaven 
on earth are in the Bible, and it is the duty of every 
one who desires to know the way to the kingdom 
or to walk therein to study the word of God. A 
Christian who does not do so must of necessity have 
a low rank in the kingdom, and certainly shows but 
little appreciation of the great effort of our Heavenly 
Father to reveal to us his divine will. 

All nature points upward to one great Spirit who 
created all things; and this being we call God. He 
is manifested to us in his works, which we behold on 
every hand in matchless beauty and perfection. 
Above us are the beautiful stars, with silent tread 
marching through the skies. They light the great 
empyrean like gentle eyes, and reflect the brightness 
of the heaven which lies beyond, xiround us are the 
trees and flowers clad in green, beautiful emblems 
of immortality. On every hand fair landscapes greet 
the eye ; and the songs of birds, the lowing of the 
herds, the rippling of the streams, the music of the 
winds, and the thousand other voices of nature all 

(115) 




M is 



(11(5) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 117 

unite to make the world beautiful and bright. The 
great Being who made these things could not have 
crowned all these labors with a creature like man 
and left him to grope his way through darkness, un- 
conscious of his origin and destiny. He could not 
have done otherwise than reveal himself somewhere 
and in some way. 

]\ran has searched the realms of nature for this 
revelation; and, as we have seen, he finds many use- 
ful lessons concealed beneath its beautiful forms. 
The lessons of growth and the lessons of providence 
are beautifully and bountifully taught, and the lov- 
ing, trustful heart can '4ook through nature up to 
nature's God." IJut there is nothing like the spoken 
word. Our first i)arents, in that expression of He- 
braic beauty, "heard the voice of God walking in the 
garden in the cool of the day;" and so man in his 
moments of repose and thoughtfulness has ever lis- 
tened for his Father's voice. As a result, we find 
every branch of enlightened humanity with its sacred 
book (the word of its God), unveiling the secrets of 
life and pointing the weary of earth to rest. We have 
searched the realms of nature, we have unearthed 
and translated the sacred books of the world; but 
we can nowhere find the revelation except in our 
Bible. This book, coming from the remotest ages, 
survives the mutability of time, and increases in 
brightness as the "civilization of the world casts its 
light upon its pages." 

"This lamp, from off the everlasting throne, 
Mercy took down, and in the night of time 



118 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

Stood, casting on the dark a gracious bow, 
And evermore beseeching men with tears 
And earnest sighs to hear, believe, and live." 

Our Bible differs from all others. For instance: 
Joseph Smith claimed to have found the Mormc i 
bible engraved on plates of gold; the Koran, of the 
Mohammedans, consists of revelations claimed to 
have been made to Mohammed; Zoroaster wrote for 
the Parsees, Confucius for the Chinese, and Gautama 
for the Buddhists, etc. Our Bible was written by 
forty different writers, through fifteen hundred years. 
''It was written by different classes of men, and un- 
der different environments. Some of its writers were 
from the kings, some from the shepherds, some from 
fishermen, some from the poets, one was a physician, 
etc. ; some wrote when Israel was in the wilderness, 
some when they were in the height of glory in the 
Promised Land, some when they were in cap- 
tivity; some was written when the writer was 
in a dungeon," etc. Yet, notwithstanding this 
diversity of environments, they all wrote as one man 
to unfold the promise God made in Eden, "that the 
seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head," 
and to put enmity between the seed of the serpent 
(sin) and the woman's seed. 

This unity that runs through the writings of forty 
men through fifteen hundred years, and under the 
varied circumstances under which they wrote, is 
unparalleled in the history of the world, and shows 
conclusively that they are productions of not forty 
men, but of one great master mind. It verifies the 



The Way to the Kbigdom of Heaven, 119 

revelation tliat '"all Scripture is given by inspiration 
of God." 

"Whence but from heaven could man, unskilled in 
arts, 
In several ages born, in several parts, 
Weave such agreeing truths ? or how, or why, 
Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie? 
Unasked their pains, ungrateful their advice. 
Starving their gain, and martyrdom their price." 

A large portion of our Bible is nothing more than 
the history of a great nation, and to all these his- 
torical facts there were millions of w^itnesses. Take, 
for instance, the passage of the Eed Sea. Did not 
over two million people witness that miraculous in- 
tervention of God ? In like manner the pillar of cloud 
and the pillar of fire were seen daily before that 
people. The Ten Commandments were not found hid 
away in a box ; but all Israel saw the wonderful dis- 
plays of God's power around Sinai when Moses re- 
ceived them. So that all these things of public oc- 
currence were national history, as well attested as 
any fact in the past. It is utter folly for any one 
to deny this portion of the Bible, and this is the 
greater portion of the book. 

A great portion of the Bible refers to other na- 
tions. A long time ago some of these allusions were 
thought to be incorrect ; but since the scientists have 
learned how to read the hieroglyphics of Egypt and 
the cuneiform writings on the bricks of Babylon the 
Bible has been so wonderfully corroborated that no 
intellisrent man now doubts these historical mention- 




If ". \V »x#>' \ 1; -I 




mfSm 

M'W •■/ / ^'^!l!'^v\:.■ 



(120) 



The ^ya^J to the Kingdom of Heaven. 121 

ings. Mr. Eawlinson has a large book showing these 
confirmations. 

Our Bible undertakes to account for the dispersion 
of men and the diversity of language. There has 
been found in the ruins of Babylon a cla}^ tablet (now 
in the British Museum) which corroborates some- 
what the Bible narrative. It reads: 

"Their work all day they builded; 
But to their stronghold in the night 
Entirely an end God made. 

In his anger also his secret counsel he poured forth, 
He set his face to scatter; 

He gave command to make strange their speech; 
Their progress he impeded. 
In that day he blew, and for future time 
The mountain was demolished." 

Our Bible undertakes to prophesy as to the fate 
of nations. For example, when Babylon was in the 
height of its glory, Isaiah, the prophet, said: "Baby- 
lon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chal- 
dees, excellency, shall be as Avhen God overthrew 
Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, 
neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to gener- 
ation : neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; 
neither shall the shepherds make their flocks to lie 
down there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie 
there," etc. This prophecy has been fulfilled ; and of 
all the desolate i)laces of the earth, proud old Baby- 
lon takes the lead now. 

There is no doubt but that the moral teachings 
of the Bible surjjass those of any other religious 



122 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

system in the world ; and if man believes in the moral 
sense, he cannot object to this part of the Bible. 

This leaves but little in the Bible, called the mirac- 
ulous, which men can doubt at all. The fact that 
it is miraculous shows that it is out of the usual 
course of nature, and therefore more difficult of be- 
lief. But where we find so much truth around a 
germ it is utter folly to reject the germ without a 
thorough test and examination. Think of it: Over 
three hundred million people in the world to-day say 
they have made the test, and that it is as true of the 
rest of the book. Do we need any more witnesses? 
If so, where are the faithful and beloved spirits who 
for thousands of years have been crossing the river 
of life ^'to fairer lands on high?" There must be 
billions of these. 

How can a man be so ignorant as to deny the truth 
of the Scriptures ? How can he doubt that God has 
revealed himself to men? 

Scott has well said : 

"Happiest they of human race, 
To whom God has granted grace 
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 
To lift the latch, and force the way; 
And better had they ne'er been born, 
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn." 



XX. 

SIN. 

Sin means error, disobedience, failure, to go astray, 
etc. It is not an essence. There is not an ounce of 
it or a pound of it in all the world ; and yet the world 
is full of sin. What is it? It is committing some 
act God has commanded us not to do, or failing to 
do some act God has commanded us to do. The first 
we call '"sins of commission" and the second we call 
''sins of omission." 

People sometimes trouble themselves with the ques- 
tion as to whether God is the author of sin. We 
answer : No. Eve was the author of the first human 
sin, and Adam the author of the second sin. Each 
person is the author of his own sins. It is our disobe- 
dience that makes sin, and surely God does not de- 
sire or direct us to be disobedient. 

We read that the wages of sin is death. The Greek 
word translated "wages" means a soldier's rations, 
allowance, a stated recompense — a stipend. It means 
that disobedience gets its recompense, and that rec- 
ompense is death. We also read that God "will have 
all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge 
of the truth;" also that he is "not willing that any 
should perish." (1 Tim. ii. 4 and 2 Pet. iii. 9.) 

Now it would be impossible for God to be the 

(123) 



124 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

author of that Avhich Avould defeat his own will and 
cause many to perish and be lost. 

Those who cease to commit sinful acts should be 
careful also not to commit sins of omission. Duties 
are enjoined upon us; and if we fail in these duties, 
we are disobedient. Thousands of Christians refuse 
the divine command to spread tlie gospel over the 
earth, preferring to save their money and twaddle 
about the conversion of the heathen. This is a sin 
of omission, or failure to do duty. If the heathen 
refused to be converted, it would be, nevertheless, 
our duty to send the gospel to them. Their failures 
do not justify ours. They have not the light of the 
gospel ; but we are presumed to have it. Our sin is, 
therefore, the greater. 

Idle Christians throng our Churches while men 
are perishing for the word of life; and Charity veils 
her face in shame that the poor and the sick are left 
alone to suffer and die unattended. Wasted oppor- 
tunities, neglected duties, the failure to dare and 
do confront us at every turn of life. We must cease 
sinning: tlien we are guiltless, then we are justified. 
But we must go farther: "Whatsoever thy hand find 
eth to do, do it with thy might." 



XXI. 

THE LORD'S SUPPER— OUK HOLY 
COMMUNION. 

This is au ordinance of the kingdom of heaven, and 
was instituted by Christ himself before his cruci- 
fixion, therefore before the shed'ding of his blood or 
the piercing of his body. It was before Pentecost 
and before the establishment of any organized Chris- 
tian Church. 

1. As Christ was alive at its institution, it is not 
to be considered in a materiaT sense. It is true that 
the bread was broken and eaten and that the fruit of 
the vine was taken and drunk, and that they were 
material substances; but they were not to satisfy 
material hunger. (1 Cor. ii. 34.) ''Let him who is 
hungry eat at home ; that ye may assemble, not for 
condemnation." (Syriac Version.) As it could not 
be taken in a material sense then, so it cannot be 
now; for Christ's bodily person is in heaven at the 
right hand of the throne of the Father, and cannot 
be at the same time visibly and bodih^ present in the 
hand of a priest. We can see that Christ spoke sym- 
bolically when he said of the bread, ''This is my body," 
and of the fruit of the vine, "This is my blood." In 
like manner Jesus said of himself: "I am the vine, 
I am the door, I am the way." These are all symbolic 
expressions. 

(125) 




(126) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 127 

2. The Lord's Supper is a memorial ceremonj. 
Jesus said: ''This do in remembrauce of me." (Lulce 
xxii. 19.) Paul said: ''As often as ye eat this bread, 
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death." 
(1 Cor. xi. 2G.) It is showing the Lord's death, and 
is in remembrance of him. It is more solemn than 
a funeral, for it is keeping in remembrance the tragic 
death of one who died for us. Solemnity and love 
should guide our every movement at the table of the 
Lord. 

3. But ^'the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not 
the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread 
which we break, is it not the communion of the body 
of Christ?" (1 Cor. x. 16.) The word ''communion" 
(koinonia) means fellowship, partnership, partici- 
pation. It sometimes means contribution in the 
use of. (Eom. xv. 26.) In the scriptures here it 
means fellowship and partnership with Christ, par- 
ticipation in the blood of Christ spiritually, contrib- 
uting to its work by its public recognition and use 
in our o^ti natures and lives. 

4. ^'This is my blood of the covenant, which is 
poured out for many for [eis] the remission of sins." 
We had the old covenant and its sign, and now we 
have the new covenant signified in the cup — the sym- 
bol of the blood. The covenant pledges us to Christ 
and Christ to us. 

5. Some think this eating and drinking are to the 
spirit nature what bread and the fruit of the vine 
are to the body. They do represent Christ as the 
nourishment of the spirit. He is the bread of life, 
and we feed on him spiritually. 



128 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

6. Christ being s]>iritiially present witli us in mys- 
tical union, the divine and the human life being 
united in the temple of God (our body), we can and 
do receive sweet communion Avith him. 

7. We proclaim the Lord's death till he comes 
again. (1 Cor. xi. 26.) It is keei)ing alive his com- 
ing again to receive us unto himself. We are told 
that he shall descend from heaven, and that the good 
who are alive, as well as the dead who are in Christ, 
shall be caught up together to meet him; wherefore 
we are to comfort one another with these words, and 
we may also with this sacred communion. 

8. The water baptism, we have seen, is a witness of 
the state or condition of the remission of sins, and 
this sacrament is a symbol of the vicarious sacrifice 
through which sins are remitted. 

9. No special time is prescribed for the taking of 
this sacrament. The statement is: "As oft as ye 
take it.'' 

Eat It Not Unworthily. . 

To eat it unworthily is to call Christ's death to 
mind without seeking first the forgiveness of sin. 
It is to pretend to remember his sacrifice, and then 
not accept the offering that w^as made for the propi- 
tiation of sin ; it is to pretend to enter into com- 
munion with the Master, and at the same time refuse 
to partake with him. It is the duty of all Chris- 
tians to take the sacrament; and to turn the back 
upon the Lord's table is like rejecting him. The 
Christian who says he cannot eat worthily is ac- 
knowledging that he has gone astray, does not wish 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 129 

to, commune with the Saviour, will not keep in re- 
membrance his death, nor commune with him in his 
sacred service. It is a sad state or condition for any 
Christian to occupy, and a position from which one 
should flee to God for forgiveness; and preparation 
should be made for future communings. Whenever 
opportunity offers, let all who love Jesus gather at 
the Lord's table. 

The Elements to Be Used in the Communion. 

Unleavened bread and the unfermented juice of 
the grape are the elements we believe that Jesus 
used in instituting the supi)er, and we should follow 
by using the same elements. 

The evangelists who describe this supper are agreed 
that the drink offered was of the fruit of the vine, 
and it is designated by them in those very words. 
St. Paul speaks of it as "this cup." The term "wine" 
is not used at all. 

We are left, therefore, to the circumstances sur- 
rounding the supper and the time and object of its 
institution to determine the nature of the drink. 

1. It was the first day of the feast of unleav- 
ened bread — the Passover. The Saviour said him- 
self that he was to keep the Passover with his disci- 
ples. The law regulating the festival contains this 
provision : "Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread ; 
even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of 
your houses." (Ex. xii. 15.) 

Now, leaven is something that produces or is de- 
signed to produce fermentation. It is that which 
makes wine intoxicating. As the Saviour found this 
9 



130 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

"fruit of the vine" on a Jewish table and in a Jewish 
house on this day of unleavened bread, when all 
ferment was to be out of the houses of this people, 
it is reasonable to suppose that it was not fermented 
wine that was used. 

2. The term "wine" w^as not used ; but it was called 
a "drink of the fruit of the vine." This term cer- 
tainly indicates a drink more closely related to the 
fruit than fermented wine. If the term "wine" had 
been used, the matter might require further investi- 
gation; but in its absence we must conclude that 
intoxicating wine was not used. 

3. There is no alcohol in grapes. To make alco- 
holic wine it is necessary to expose the grape juice 
to the air until it begins to decay, as all vegetable 
matter will do when exposed to the air. The great 
German chemist Liebig says that during the proc- 
ess of decomposition alcohol is formed by an addi- 
tional element from the air, and the decay is arrested. 
The product is then called "fermented wine." We 
see, then, that it is something more than "the fruit 
of the vine." As oxygen enters into the composition 
of w^ater and it is no longer oxygen, so grape juice 
may enter into fermented wine, but it is no longer 
simple grape juice. 

4. Fermented wine at the sacrament tends to re- 
vive the taste for alcoholic liquors, and many who 
have been addicted to drink have been forced to be 
careful how they partake at the Lord's table. The 
great privilege of participating in this memorial 
service, dear to every Christian, was never designed 
to be a promoter of intemperance ; therefore, instead 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 131 

of seeking to find that the drink of the vine was in- 
toxicating, we should endeavor to find that it was 
rather the harmless, unfermented juice of the grape. 

5. The Jews had leather or skin bottles in which 
to preserve their wines, and these were covered with 
tar or pitch so as to .keep out the air and prevent 
fermentation. Tt was for this reason that they did 
not put new wine into old bottles. 

The old bottles having been emptied and exposed 
to the air, the juice that had soaked into the skins 
on the inside was a sure nest of leaven, and soon 
produced fermentation. As ihej had this sweet wine, 
is it not reasonable to suppose that our Saviour used 
it rather than the leavened or fermented kind, which 
the Jews had been taught to believe brought woe and 
sorrow ? 

There are other reasons for believing fermented 
wine should not be used at the sacrament; but we 
will stop here and refer to the drink in its charac- 
ter as a symbol. 

It symbolized the blood of Jesus — the natural 
product of life. Grape juice would symbolize this, 
but not intoxicating Avine, as grape juice is a natural 
product and wine an artificial one. Let the deacons 
and elders and stewards procure a drink of the fruit 
of the vine — simple grape juice put up so that it will 
not ferment — and let the Church take courage and 
press on, freed from all connection with the liquor 
traffic. 



XXII. 

THE FAITH OF TENDER LOVE— ST. PAUL 
AND ST. JAMES RECONCILED. 

Martin Luther, the great reformer, was so carried 
away by the doctrine of salvation through faith 
alone that he doubted the authenticity of the general 
Epistle of James, because it teaches that ''faith with- 
out works is dead." He did not think it should have 
a place among the books of Scripture. But notwith- 
standing his opposition and the opposition of those 
who believe with him, this Epistle is retained in the 
collection, and is recognized by the Christian world 
to be as truly the word of God as any part of the 
sacred canon. 

Much of the opposition to this teaching of St. 
James grows out of a misunderstanding of that mem- 
orable saying of the apostle Paul, that "with the 
heart man believeth unto righteousness." This is 
often erroneously interpreted to mean simple belief, 
without regard to works, when the true interpreta- 
tion would give us. quite a different idea. Indeed, 
the analysis of St. Paul's saying will give us substan- 
tially the teachings of St. James. Let us consider the 
saying of St. Paul. He says: ''With the heart man 
believeth unto righteousness." The term "heart" 
here means the affection, and affection is tender love. 
(132) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 133 

So the saying of St. Paul is equivalent to the state- 
ment : ''With tender h)ve nian believeth unto right- 
eousness." 

Now we all know what love is, whether we can 
explain it or not. Mr. Upliam, a noted writer on 
subjects pertaining to mental philosophy, says: "It 
is a complex state of the mind embracing, first, a 
pleasant emotion in view of the object ; and, secondly, 
a desire to do good to that object." In other words, 
something pleases, affects us pleasantly, and incites 
within us a desire to please or make that something 
happy. That is love — the tender love with which 
we may believe unto righteousness. Tell me whom 
you love, and I will tell you whom you desire to 
please: I will tell you whose will controls your will. 
This desire to please, this doing the will of another, 
which enters into and forms a part of love, and 
hence into St. Paul's faith of tender love, is sub- 
stantially the same thing taught by St. James when 
he couples faith and works together. For if we love 
God, we will desire to please him, which we know 
we can do only by the performance of his will, which 
is the doing of the works which he has enjoined 
upon us. One of the meanings of the word "work" 
here, in the original, is "duty performed." This is the 
work of God, that we believe on him whom he hatli 
sent (John vi. 29) ; but it is a duty to partake of 
Jesus the Bread of Life, to partake of the water of 
life freely, and to visit the widow and the orphans in 
their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from 
the world. 

There are two kinds of faith : the faith of the un- 



134 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

derstanding and the faith of affection or tender love. 
To illustrate : You tell me there was such a man as 
Julius Caesar, and I believe it; but that belief does 
not affect me in the least, because I do not care any- 
thing for that old Koman soldier. So you may tell 
me there was such a man as Jesus of Nazareth, and 
I may believe it just as I believe that Julius Caesar 
lived, and that belief will not affect me. That is the 
belief of the understanding, the belief of the people of 
this country outside the kingdom of heaven ; also the 
belief of the devil and the demons. But if, when told 
of Jesus, I am pleased at the contemplation of his 
character, and feel moved by his love for me to take 
hold of him with my affection ; and if I find within 
me a desire to do the work he has enjoined upon 
me to do, then I am affected by my belief, and will 
show by my life that I have the "faith of tender 
love." 

It is right to have the belief of the understanding, 
but that continues with us only until we see Jesus, 
for that kind of faith ends in sight. When we see 
him, we will knoiv that he is, and have no need of 
belief in his existence. It is right to have a hope 
that we will some day walk the streets of the New 
Jerusalem; but hope will end when we possess the 
object we desire. Hope ends in fruition. It is "ten- 
der love" that survives the grave and extends into 
the boundless realms of eternity. The Master de- 
fined the whole law and prophets to be love — love to 
God and love to man ; for the Master knew that if we 
loved God we would desire, and not only desire but 
try, to please him by the observance of his law; and 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 135 

that if we loved man we would desire also to please 
him and make him happy in the possession of all 
things good for his soul. 

If we do no work for the Master, if we pass by 
unheeded his divine commands, we evidence no love 
for him, we have no faith in him. 

We do not mean to say we get faith by works ; for 
no man can by the performance of mere works enter 
into the divine life. St. Paul tells us that Israel 
sought righteousness by the works of the law, and 
failed. The truth is, we may do what we will, and at 
best we are unprofitable servants. 

We do not stress works, except as the outward 
manifestation of love, which enters into the composi- 
tion of Christian faith. They flow from love, just as 
water flows from a fountain. When no water flows 
out, we know the fount is dry ; and so we may know 
that "faith without works is dead." 

It is faith that unlocks the pearly gates of the 
celestial city of the skies, and it is faith that guides 
us toward its many mansions. It is to the faithful 
man that the crown of life is given, and only the 
faithful ones who can reach the glorious haven — a 
home in heaven. But it is a faith of affection — a 
faith that affects the life to obedience and leads it 
out to trust the God who made us. This is the faith 
of 8t. Paul, and the faith of St. James is the faith 
of tender love. 




(18G) 



THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. 



XXIII. 

GUAEDIAN ANGELS. 

In the ancient Church the guardianship of angels 
was recognized ; but in these latter days this precious 
truth is almost obsolete. In the Old Testament the 
visitations of angels were numerous, and in the dawn 
of our Christian era they took a conspicuous part. 
Now we hear of such things only in the sweet lullaby 
of the mother, who unconsciously sings out of a heart 
of undefiled love and innocency : 

"Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber; 

Holy angels guard thy bed; 
Heavenly blessings without number 
Gently fall upon thy head.'' 

Our cradle songs, like infant prayers, never fail 
to impress us with the truths they contain. Words 
from tender lips long silent never cease to echo in 
our hearts; and we trust the dear mothers will con- 
tinue to sing the little lullaby until the Church 
comes again to the realization of the glorious truth 
that they that be for us are more than they that be 
against us. 

elohn Wesley believed in guardian spirits, and he 
often sang before retiring that old hymn : 

"Let Thy blessed angels, while I sleep, 
Around my bed their vigils keep.-' 

(137) 




MESSENGERS APPEAK TO ABRAHAM. 



(138) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 139 

In the Psalms we read: "The angel of the Lord 
encampeth round about them that fear him, and 
delivereth them." (Ps. xxxiv. 7.) Sennacherib 
learned this great truth when the angel went out of 
Jerusalem one night and slew one hundred and 
eighty-five thousand of his army. (Isa. xxxvii. 36.) 
The enemies of Daniel found it out when they threw 
him into the den of lions. The angel was there to close 
the lions' mouths. When Abraham raised his hand 
to strM^e the fatal blow into the heart of his beloved 
Isaac, it was his angel friend that caught his arm. 
The three angels that visited Abraham and feasted 
with him under the oaks of Mamre brought glad 
tidings of a blessing for his old age; and revealed 
the vengeance of God upon the cities of the plains. 
Does not David say : "There shall no evil befall thee, 
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For 
he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee 
in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their 
hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." (Ps. 
xci. 10-12.) Now if we need anything else to confirm us 
in our belief in guardian spirits, let us go to St. Paul. 
He seems to have put the question at rest by declar- 
ing that the whole company of angels were minis- 
tering spirits to the heirs of salvation. (Heb. i. 14.) 

"How cheering the thought that the angels in bliss 
Will bow their bright wings to a world such as this. 
Will leave the sweet joys of the mansions above, 
To breathe o'er our bosoms some message of love !" 

Some materialistic brother may say that is fancy, 
but Lazarus did not think so when the angels bore 




THE angel's EERAND. 



(140) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, Ittl 

him from the rich mairs gate to the bosom of Abra- 
ham. (Luke xvi. 24.) 

But if the good guardian spirits can approach us, 
why may not evil spirits? St. Paul tells us in the 
last chapiter of Ephesians that we wrestle not against 
flesh and blood, but, to put his saying in plain Eng- 
lish, ^'against wicked siMrits." We are told that the 
good si)irits minister to the heirs of salvation, that 
the camping angels are about those who fear the 
Lord; but what about those who are not heirs of 
salvation and who do not fear the Lord? Every- 
thing ix)ints to the idea that on the condition of a 
man depends his spiritual atmosphere and surround- 
ings. If a man is pure and holy in his thoughts and 
life, the heavenly spheres are opened and the de- 
scending angels minister, so that he feels as Jacob 
felt at Bethel : ^'This is none other but the house 
of God, and this is the gate of heaven." If a man is 
impure in word, thought, or action, just to that ex- 
tent does he receive associations from the spirit 
world en rapport with the evil he embraces. How 
necessary is it, then, that we seek heart purity and 
abstain from every sin that doth beset us ! The Scrip- 
ture teaches us that the angels take a very active 
part in the things of the world. We could not begin 
to mention all that they have done or are to do. Eli- 
jah, under the juniper tree, received of their bounty ; 
Belshazzar, in the handwriting on the wall, received 
their warning; Eiisha, at Dothan, received their 
protection ; Jesus, in the wilderness, received their 
ministrations; and the shepherds heard their glad- 
some song, ^'Peace on earth, good will to men," when 



142 The Way io the Kingdom of Heaven, 

the Beloved lay in the manger at Bethlehem. In 
the last days the angels will hold the winds of the 
earth; thej will sound the trumpets and empty the 
vials and preach the gospel and come out of the East 
to seal the servants of the Lord and bind Satan ! 

/'Hark, hark, my soul ! angelic songs are swelling 
O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-beat 
shore ; 
How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling 
Of that new life when sin shall be no more !" 

— Faher, 



XXIV. 

THE BOOK OF OUR LIVES. 

Our thoughts, our judgments, our actions — indeed, 
all events that come within our consideration — are 
impressed upon us. They are just as certain of mak- 
ing an impression upon us as our voices are to make 
an impression upon the wax cylinder of the phono- 
graph when we speak into it. 

Where and how these impressions are made upon 
us, we do not know. We are simply conscious of the 
fact that the impressions are made and are retained 
in our being somewhere and somehow. 

Every man whose intellect is not shrouded with 
physical or mental infirmity is conscious of these 
facts, and needs not the disquisitions of the learned 
metaphysicians to direct his mind to them. 

As to whether man will receive these impressions 
does not depend upon his volition. This we also 
know because there are many things in life that we 
would gladly have shut out and not retained within 
us. 

The phonograph, when in order, retains everything 
that is spoken into it; and man receives all impres- 
sions that pass in through his senses or his conscious- 
ness. We may take the small wax cylinder and scrape 
off the little indentations that the sound waves make 
in it because it is a thing of matter, but impressions 
that are made upon our spirits we cannot erase. 

(143) 



144 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

Now we call this act of retaining memory. Some 
writers call it a power; some, a capacity; some, an 
attribute ; some, a faculty. We know what it is, and 
we know that it is inherent in man. 

The power to recall events, called ^'recollection," 
is sometimes classed with memory, but not properly 
so. The power to recall is simply the power to seek 
the record and find it, or fish it up and present it 
afresh to the mind. Some possess this power more 
wonderfully than others; but this depends greatly 
upon the physical parts. For example: People some- 
times are stricken with paralysis and lose all power 
to recall anything past, except the most common- 
place affairs; but these, upon partial recovery, have 
been known to come again into all their past knowl- 
edge. This is conclusive that the memory was un- 
impaired, but that the recollection had been clouded 
by physical infirmity. 

That our memories survive our physical death, the 
parable of the rich man and Lazarus abundantly 
shows us. (Luke xvi.) Lazarus (which signifies 
one without help) died and was carried by the Spirit 
to "Abraham's bosom," which signified the place of 
spiritual felicity in the minds of the Jews, and rep 
resents to us our Paradise. The rich man ( who 
represented an opposite character) died and in Hades 
(not hell, as translated) lifted up his eyes and, see- 
ing Lazarus in a state of felicity, asked that he might 
be sent to minister to him. Abraham replied: "Son, 
remember," etc. If the memory had perished, then 
there would have been nothing to recall. This rich 
man also remembered his brethren. 



Tlie Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 145 

In Revelation the judgment is described (chapter 
XX.) and the declaration is made that the "books 
were opened," and we are judged out of the things 
that are written in them; but these records may be 
verified from the book of our lives that we have kept 
ourselves. This subject of memory is one of the most 
terrible thoughts connected with the future. 

Think of it ! We carry in our own selves the record 
of our lives. 

Have we wronged a fellow-being? If we have, it 
is engraven in our own book. Have we been unfaith- 
ful to God ? If we have, we carry the record to the 
judgment, and can never say a word when we turn 
from its bar to our own place. Have we in the shel- 
ter of the night degraded our natures? Behold the 
dark lines that run along our being and make an 
ugly blot. 

According to mythology, Lethe was one of the 
rivers of the unseen world, the waters of which pos- 
sessed the property of causing a total forgetfulness 
of the past. The spirits of the dead, they thought, 
drank a draught of its waters when entering on the 
joys of Elysium and ceased to remember the troubles 
and sorrows of life. 

This fancied picture of the misguided heathen is 
but an emanation from souls sick and faint with the 
disappointments of life. Tired of the stern realities 
of time, from which they saw no way to escape, they 
looked with longing eyes for something to bring 
"snrcease of sorrow" in the life beyond. We have 
not improved ujjon the ancients in this desire ; man 
still craves oblivion for his misfortunes. He does 
10 



146 The Way to the Eingdo.n of Heaven, 

not now seek Lethe's waters in their noiseless flow 
through unseen lands as these old ancients did; but 
he is seeking, nevertheless, for some grave of forget- 
fulness, fleeing, as it were, from the "book of his life." 
When he tries to pluck the fairest flowers of life 
and fails to reach them, whether on his own account 
or the treachery of others, or perchance strikes the 
reefs and sands of sorrow that border the sea of life 
and falls a stranded wreck upon the coast of time 
with none to do him honor, he would gladly quaff 
this fabled drink, and turn away in sweet forgetful - 
ness to see once more a bow of hope upon his sky. 
But, alas! he cannot cease to remember. No fabled 
waters of fancied lands can obliterate from the mind 
the memories it has gathered. They will live on, 
fresh and green, surviving the wreck of matter, the 
shock of worlds, and the ruins of time. 

"Our memories 

We cannot erase : 
They cling like the odor 

Eound the old shattered vase ; 
Their beauty has gone, 

Their sweetness is fled. 
But memory will gather 

The leaves that are dead." 



XXV. 

GOD AS A PITYING FATHER. 

God is that perfect Being of whom man is the 
likeness and image. We cannot penetrate the hidden 
mysteries of the unseen spheres, nor comprehend the 
personalities, or even things, which are to be found 
there. How far, then, must we fall short of com- 
prehending the nature of the greatest of all its be- 
ina's — God ! We can only look at the likeness and the 
image as they are revealed to us, and then imagine 
what must be the great personality they represent. 

We know that man was made in his image, and 
we know that God must be the perfect one, faintly 
shadowed in the representation of the perfect man- 
hood. God, in speaking of the relative position of 
man to his own ways and thouglits, says: "As the 
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
higher than your ways, and my thoughts thau 
your thoughts." But, fortunately for us in the mat- 
ter we have in hand to-day, God has permitted a 
comparison of himself with man. 

We speak now of the pitying side of his nature. 
He says: "Like as a father pitieth his children, so 
the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth 
our frame ; he remembereth that we are dust." The 
comparison is plain and simple. "Like as a father 
pitieth his children" is the standard of measurement 

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14:8 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

that God himself sets up by which we may deter- 
mine faintly the extent of his pity for man. 

We have had an opportunity of knowing some- 
thing of parental pity. For upward of twenty-five 
years we have been engaged in reporting criminal 
trials, and on these occasions the parental heart 
manifests itself truly. We have seen tears flow, and 
heard the low, sad wails of anguish that could touch 
a heart of stone. That same pity that man has for 
his children, God has for those who fear him. 

Some have tried very hard to make God out as 
an austere being, ready to inflict the most grievoxis 
punishments for the most trivial things; but such 
is not the character that Hevelation gives us of our 
Father, nor is it the character we see manifested in 
nature. God is not after punishing people, but is 
after mending them up and saving them. We need 
not approach him in fear, but love. 

Everywhere in nature we see the processes of heal- 
ing and saving. If we cut a tree, we are not sur- 
prised to find after a time that a great effort has 
been made to heal over the wound. Job tells us what 
we already know^ — that ^'there is hope of a tree, if 
it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that 
the tender branch thereof will not cease." (Chapter 
xiv. 7.) 

God's efforts are still greatest for us. He heals 
our broken hearts, binds up our wounds, pities our 
misfortunes, hears our cries of distress and succors 
us in times of trouble, and bends all the spirit pow- 
ers of heaven and earth to rescue us. He is all. the 
time helping us and mending up our broken places; 




REPENTANCE OF THE NINEVITES. 



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150 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

and if we just turn our faces heavenward, we catch 
the sunshine of his love just as the heath flower 
when it turns its disk to the sun catches the rays 
of that beneficent orb. 

We shall now give two Bible incidents which 
show our idea of God's pity more clearly than we 
have words to portray. The first is God's dealings 
with Nineveh. Nineveh was a great city, but a very 
wicked one. God sent his prophet there with this 
message : "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be over- 
thrown." (Jonah iii. 4.) Nineveh heard the omi- 
nous message, and put on sackcloth and ashes, and 
fasted as men have seldom fasted, either before or 
since ; for man, beast, and flock tasted nothing. Now, 
that Avas a Avonderful spectacle. How did God 
meet it? "And God saw their works, that they 
turned from their evil w^ay; and God repented of the 
evil, that he said he would do unto them; and he 
did it not." (Jonah iii. 10.) The prophet was an- 
gry because his prophecy had failed; but God ex- 
hibited his pity and love to man as a far higher 
and nobler attribute than that of displeasure and 
dire punishment, though greatly deserved. 

Our second illustration is about Hezekiah. When 
he lay upon his couch of sickness one day, he was 
doubtless surprised to receive a visit from Isaiah, 
the proi)het, who came in with this message: "Thus 
saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou 
shalt die, and not live." Hezekiah turned his face 
to the wall and wept sore and prayed earnestly to 
God and touched the pity of the great Father, who 
sent Isaiah back again with this message: "I have 




"THE PITYING FATHER AND THE PRODIGAL SON. " 



"I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned 
against heaven, and before thee." (Luke xv. 18.) 

"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." 
(Ps. ciii. 13.) 

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162 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears : behold, I 
will add unto thy days fifteen years." (Isa. xxxviii. 
1-5.) 

Are there not living witnesses all over the world 
who can testify that God heard their prayers and 
pitied and saved them from peril? 

If God hears such prayers as these in behalf of 
the animal nature, will he not hear also the appeals 
of the dying for a healing of their spirits? When 
we think that it was a thief whom men loathed, and 
who was being crucified with Christ to dishonor him, 
who was the first fruit of the sacrifice of the cross, 
may we not take courage? 

The only limitation put upon this promise is this: 
that his pity is manifested to ''those who fear him.'- 
Solomon said: ''The fear of the Lord is the begin- 
ning of wisdom." Let us fear and obey the Lord, 
with the full assurance that he pities our frailties 
and judges us in love and mercy. We believe there 
are millions in paradise to-day whom the uncharita- 
ble opinions o'f men have consigned to be damned. 

"I will arise and go to my father," said the prodi- 
gal son ; and it was the father that saw him afar off 
and ran to meet him and fell on his neck and kissed 
him, and put the best robe on him, and put a ring on 
his finger and shoes on his feet, and killed the fatted 
calf, and made merry at his return. So God and 
angels rejoice at the return of the sinner to the king- 
dom of heaven. 

"O deem not they are blessed alone 
Whose lives a peaceful tenor keep; 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 153 

For God who pities m«nn hath shown 
A blessing for the eyes that weep. 

God has marked each sorrowing day, 

And numbered every secret tear, 
And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay 

For all his children suffer here." 



XXVI. 
THE PKOPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. 

Our Lord, before he was taken up into the heav- 
ens, commanded his disciples to go and teach all 
nations to observe the things he had commanded 
them to do, to baptize them in the name of the Fa- 
ther, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and promised to 
be with them to the consummation of the age. 

This was the last commandment the Master gave; 
but, like the tender, loving words of friends who 
pass the veil of death, they linger longest in our ear, 
and echo and reecho like notes of bugles sounding 
through mountain valleys. So strongly was the 
thought impressed upon the apostles that it was 
necessary for the Master to urge them not to leave 
Jerusalem at once, but to wait for the baptism of 
the Holy Spirit; for, said he, "John truly baptized 
with water ; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
Spirit not many days hence. . . . After that the 
Holy Spirit is come upon you, ye shall be witnesses 
unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 

As the last words escaped his lips, they looked 
and beheld him passing into the clouds. The apos- 
tles waited, and soon (on the day of Pentecost) came 
the wonderful manifestations during which three 
thousand people were converted and added to the 
(154) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 155 

Church in a single day, and all were baptized as 
promised. It is under this command (these parting 
words and admonitions) that the gospel is propa- 
gated, and under them it will continue to be propa 
gated until all the nations of the earth have heard 
the gospel of the Christ. 

When the apostles looked over the field, what a 
stupendous undertaking lay before them! Just 
around them was the Jew ready to crucify them. 
Euling over them was Eome, proud, imperial Rome, 
which was the mistress of the known world, and which 
had its own gods and its own civilization. To the 
east lay the great nations of Persia and India and 
China, to the northward were our own Saxon ances- 
tors, and still in the regions beyond nations dwelt 
in ignorance and in sin. There was everything to 
discourage the apostles; but they were true to the 
Master's command, and went forth in his name, con- 
quering and to conquer. But for this spirit, we 
Anglo-Saxons would have been worshiping the gods 
of our fathers to-day. 

The truth is, we are so fresh from heathenism our- 
selves that the very names of our days are mere ap- 
pellations of their heathen divinities. Tuesday is 
named for Tuesco, Wednesday for Woden, Thursday 
for Thor, and Friday for Frigga — gods of the Saxons. 

But the brave, good men of the early days of Chris- 
tianity came through the fires of persecution, through 
the ravings of wild beasts, through the sacrifice of 
martyrdoms to bring us the good news; and there 
will ever be found among the bravest and the best 
men who will carry forward the gospel to those who 



156 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

still sit in the land of darkness and despair. The 
truth is, if Christianity were not an emanation from 
the great Divine, its attendant blessings are so many 
that common humanity would induce us to spread 
its beneficence among the nations of the earth. 

There are well-meaning Christians who oppose 
missions for the reason that they prefer to teach 
their own nations; but they do err, because this is 
not a question of preferences. The command is to 
teach all nations, and to go to the uttermost ends 
of the earth with the instruction. 

We may not understand the hidden mysteries of 
God's plans, but we can understand the simple com- 
mand: ^'Go ye therefore and teach all nations," etc. 
A child can understand that, and the children do un- 
derstand it, and they are obeying the Master all over 
the land by contributing their little mite to send the 
word of life to the uttermost regions of the earth. 

Some say it costs too much, but no man has yet 
fathomed the value of a human soul. How much 
did it cost the New York Journal to rescue Cisneros, 
the Cuban girl, from the malicious hand of the cruel 
Spaniard? What large sums have been expended 
to rescue men from the depths of burning mines! 
What large sums have been expended to bring them 
safely from the regions of the North! Can it cost 
too much to save at any cost one human soul from 
the darkness of despair? 

Some say missions accomj^lish too little. Alas! 
this is the cry of ignorance. ' The missionary spirit 
made England and France and Germany and Amer- 
ica the masters of the world. It is bringing light 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 157 

into Japan aud the islands of the sea. Ah, but they 
may say it did good to us and England and Germany 
and France, etc., but it will not do good to China! 
Can we not at least hope that what did good to so 
many will do good to all? Let the Christian people 
of all denominations wake up to the necessity, of 
action, immediate action, in the interest of missions, 
and trust all results to God. The question is not 
whether the heathen will receive the gosi)el; it is 
whether you will send it, whether you (reader) will 
obey the Master or follow the excuses of your own 
making to your own destruction. We know a man 
who has had great financial losses; we have seen 
him look over his securities that turned to nothing 
under the rapid declines of panicky times; we have 
seen him run up suddenly with some stock he had 
taken in a college for the education of the women 
of China, a transaction he had forgotten ; then we 
heard him say : "Thank God, that is good yet !" That 
is a treasure moths cannot corrupt nor thieves break 
through and steal. 

So it will be with you, friends. Give ! give ! ! give ! ! ! 
and lay up treasures in heaven. 



XXVII. 
THE POWER OF INFLUENCE FOR GOOD. 

No man can live in the world and come in contact 
with his fellow-men without influencing in some way 
the destinies of others. If he is great in the attain- 
ments of knowledge, he will inspire the youth of his 
country with a desire to press forward in the pur- 
suit of wisdom; if his tongue possesses the fires of 
eloquence or his pen is dipped in the graces of ele- 
gance, scores of young orators and writers will be led 
to seek these heights of fame and honor ; if his life is 
adorned with Christian virtues and his rugged nature 
mellowed with the light of heaven, he will instill 
in a thousand hearts the hopes of life and immortal- 
ity; if he lives in the midst of pleasures or is sur- 
rounded by luxurious ease or dallies with flowers of 
passion or feeds his appetites with the viands of sin, 
others will be induced to run after these shadows of 
time, that they too may escape the cares and trials 
of life and only pluck its brightest flowers. In short, 
whether in this domain or that, whether in the high- 
est heights or lowest plains of life, man carries with- 
in his grasp the very lives of some with whom his lot 
is cast. 

This influence is the result often of example, which 
silently and unconsciously entrances us and makes 
us imitate that which we admire in others ; or it may 
(158) 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 159 

result from what we say — our iustructions to others ; 
or it may come from the allurements and deceptions 
with which we contrive to ensnare the unwary in the 
thoughtless moments of life. It matters not in what 
way the influence comes, it will come in some way 
or other, and it will affect the destinies of those whose 
confidence we enjoy. 

How important, therefore, it is for us to do right 
at all times and throw no deceptive shadows or allur- 
ing pictures by the road of life to entice the unwary 
in forbidden paths ! It is better for us to paint virtue 
and truth in sweet attire and crown graces with the 
loveliest bays and lead man upward to a plane of 
life above the tinseled skies by living right than by 
an evil word or wicked example to start him in the 
downward road that leads to ruin and death. It is 
better for him and better for us; for in the propor- 
tion that we elevate others we elevate ourselves and 
our posterity, and in the proportion that we degrade 
man we lower the standard of manhood and throw 
a cloud over the paths of those w^ho shall come after 
us. As the wavelet from the pebble cast into the 
lake widens as it goes nor stays until it laps the 
farther shores, so the influence proceeding from the 
examples and instructions of our lives will go on in 
unbroken currents dow^n the streams of time until 
they shall spend themselves upon the shores of eter- 
nity. We may lead but one astray, yet he may lead 
others and they still others, and so on until a single 
act may poison the currents of human life and send 
its withering curse upon thousands yet unborn. In 
the light of these fearful truths, how can any one 



160 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

deliberately open up a way to hell and then, in order 
to entice, festoon it with the richest flowers that 
adorn the vales of earth? How can the man who 
erects a palace of sin and who leads astray his thou- 
sands hope to escape the fires of perdition, while 
the damning currents of his pernicious influence are 
flowing like torrents down the corridors of time, 
burying beneath its flow the hearts and lives of mil- 
lions? 

He is a good and a true man whose influence is 
always for the right, whose instructions are savored 
with the beautiful and tlie good, whose brightest 
pictures are the excellencies of morality and truth, 
and whose life is a light along the shores* of time to 
guide us back to home and heaven. 



XXVIII. 

THE REIGN OF BENEFICENT LAW IS THE 
GENERAL PEOYIDENCE OF GOD. 

No subject is of more interest than that of divine 
providence. We all naturally desire to know what 
care God takes of his creatures and what provision 
he has made for their comfort and hai^piness. In 
this article we shall speak only of God's general 
providence. 

All men being the children of God, we should ex- 
pect to find all things so adjusted and regulated as to 
afford all equal opportunities to receive and enjoy 
the blessings they bestow. In order that this end 
may be happily reached, we may expect to find what 
we do find — that all nature is under law working out 
the common good of all. It matters not how good or 
how bad a man ma}^ be, the sun rises upon him, the 
showers fall upon his farm, heat and cold, light 
and darkness visit him, the air he breathes is freely 
furnished, the pure water bubbles up to slake his 
thirst, and vegetation grows as the result of his la- 
bors. These providences are laws working steadily 
for the good of all, and every man is permitted to 
study the laws and get the greatest possible benefit 
from them. 

Take, for example, the law of agriculture. That 
man who by exi>erience or strdy knows best how to 
11 (161) 



162 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

take advantage of these laws makes the best crops, 
if he applies that knowledge to the cultivation of 
his farm. In the proportion that he fails or refuses 
to work in accordance with those laws, to that ex- 
tent he fails. Whether the man is religious or irre- 
ligious, he must obey the laws of agriculture to make 
a good crop and get the best results from his labors. 

Not only does this apply to simple matter and to 
vegetable life; it is true also in the mental and spirit- 
ual realms and in the growth and development of 
our bodies and their preservation. 

Here is a man with a strong physical constitution. 
He takes into his system alcoholic liquors, which 
give him a kidney trouble or liver trouble or indi- 
gestion, and cause his death. Has not that man 
perished by his own hand from a disobedience to the 
laws of health? 

We foolishly call such a death a providence of 
God, when in truth God has said : ''Look not thou 
upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color 
in the cup. ... At the last it biteth like a serpent, 
and stingeth like an adder." We ought not to say it 
is a providence of God, but a refusal to obey the laws 
of health — a rejection of God's providence. God's 
laws of health and life are intended to enable us to 
live out our days, and not to destroy us. 

Look now at the laws of mind: If we neglect our 
studies and play away the bright hours of youth, 
how will we stand in the world of progress among 
the intelligent men and women who grace it with 
their knowledge? We cannot stand! The mental 
laws require a systematic training of the mental 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 163 

faculties; and if we refuse to go tlirougli with the 
necessary labor, our minds are dwarfed. Now, these 
mental la^^■s and these laws of liealth are the same 
over all. Anybody can improve his mind by stud}', 
and anybody can improve his health by obeying the 
laws of health. 

Law prevails in the spirit realm. The Father of 
us all makes it the essential of true spiritual happi- 
ness thnt we live virtuously and righteously and 
temperately. In the proportion that we violate 
these laws, just in that proportion do we fail to come 
up to the full stature of life and being. God has 
not one spirit law for one man and another for 
another. His laws rest equally over all men, and it 
is with every man as to how many of God's spiritual 
blessings he will have and enjoy. Common sense 
and the common experience of life ought to teach us 
that if we obey the laws of agriculture, with proper 
seasons, we will make good crops; and if we obey 
the laws of health, we will likely have good health; 
and if we obey the laws for the growth and develop- 
ment of the mind, we will improve our mental being. 
This being true, we ought to know by like reasoning 
that in order to grow and develop in spirit life we 
should obe}' the laws of spirit life. It is also true 
that if we violate these laws — any of them anywhere 
— we must inevitably fail. We will make no crop, 
we will have no health, have no well-stored mind, 
and have no well-rounded spirit nature. 

Toward the close of the eighteenth century some 
irregularities were discovered in the movements of 
the planet Saturn which troubled the astronomical 



164 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

world. Sir William Herschel discovered the cause on 
March 13, 1781. It was caused by the hitherto un- 
known planet Uranus, which, though large enough to 
make eighty worlds like this, was so far distant as to 
have escaped detection. The law under which Saturn 
was affected is not more certain in its operations 
than the law that governs our spirit being. When we 
depart from the path of virtue, there is some Uranus 
in the way. It may be an appetite or a passion or 
some other sin. It sways us from our spirit orbit and 
retards our onward progress toward the realms of 
light and knowledge. Wise men have found that all 
things are governed by law, and they have fallen 
down and worshiped law. They forget that there can 
be no law without a lawgiver, and do not seem to 
realize that He who tells us that He is no respecter 
of persons could rule equitably over all His children 
only by ruling through law. 

Our States and nation do the same thing, and it 
is the boast of our great country that the laws rest 
equally over all the people. It is so also with God's 
laws. These constitute his general providence. 

Now, while all this is true, we are not unmindful 
of the fact that God through Jesus Christ has set 
up a spiritual kingdom in the world and established 
the "reign of grace" in the midst of the reign of law; 
and of this we shall next speak, showing the doctrine 
of special providence in which all may share who 
conform to the provisions under which the "grace" 
is bestowed. 



XXIX. 

THE KEIGX OF GKACE ; OK, SPECIAL 
PEOVIDENCE. 

We have shown that the general providences of 
God are absolutely under laws which rest equally 
over all men as 'the children of one common and 
beneficent Father. Now we will show how God has 
set up a spiritual kingdom of his own in the very 
midst of these laws and how there has grown up in 
this kingdom a special providence over those who 
enter into its allegiance. 

But some one will ask at the very threshold of our 
argument if we propose to do away with the reign 
of lav/. We will let St. Paul and the Lord himself 
answer that. Paul says: "God forbid : yea, we estab- 
lish the law." (Kom. iii. 31.) The Lord said : "Think 
not that I am come to destroy the law. . . . One 
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, 
till all be fulfilled." (Matt. v. 17, 18.) With this au- 
thority staring us in the face, we could not for a 
moment imagine that the law has been abolished or 
set aside. 

The reign of grace is, therefore, along with and 
by the side of the reign of law. It is because of this 
fact that many who do not study God's Book become 
terribly confused when they speak of God's provi- 
dences. They so mix the reign of grace and the reign 
of law that absolutely they often charge God with 

^65) 



166 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

heinous offenses, even murder, when, in fact, God 
has been nothii?g but a loving, tender-hearted Father. 
For instance, children sometimes play around in 
the water and get wet and have pneumonia and die, 
and the parents charge the whole thing up to God, 
and have often been heard in wailings of sorrow to 
cry out in anguish against a loving Father, whose 
tender mercies and loving-kindness have blessed their 
paths with the kindest favors. O friends, let us 
remember that the laws of health have been violated 
and the penalty has come. But what does God do 
about it? Angel bands have come down out of the 
spirit spheres and borne our loved ones to blissful 
immortality. His Book has brought us comfort in 
the truth that these angels will always behold the 
face of their Father in the heavens. (Matt, xviii. 
10.) His Spirit speaks to us in love; he raises up 
kind friends to sympathize with us; and, after all 
that, we are hard-hearted and unjust accusers. Un- 
der the laws of health and life thousands go down 
untimely to the grave, through carelessness, negli- 
gence, improprieties, sinfulness, and contracted dis- 
ease. When the law governs, we must stand or fall 
by the law, unless God is pleased to suspend the law 
for our benefit, which it is unreasonable to suppose 
he will do unless it is for the best. 

If this be true, another may ask : ''Then what is the 
reign of grace and wliere does God's special provi- 
dence come in?" The word "grace" means favor, 
and favor is kindness manifested by acts. It is from 
the Latin javeo, to befriend. God befriends us in his 
kinardom. 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 167 

God establishes that kind of a kingdom here 
through Jesns Christ. We may enter this kingdom; 
and when we enter into it, God befriends us through 
his special grace; and if we do not enter, w^e re- 
main outside under the law. We take the law and 
take all we can get under it, and perish under the 
law when the law executes its judgment. If we 
understand the kingdom of grace, we will under- 
stand the special providence which God bestows 
in it. 

God establishes through Jesus Christ this new spir- 
itual kingdom, in which those who are willing to 
occupy a plane of high spiritual life are blessed of 
God by adoption into the family of heaven. To 
illustrate : There are thousands of people in this State 
who, though living where laws are all the time being 
executed, yet live so correctly in their lives that they 
never think of the law, and the law never searches 
them out. They are living above the law. So like- 
wise they w^ho live righteously, spiritually consid- 
ered, live above the law and in the special favor of 
God. These are under grace. St. Paul asks: "Shall 
we sin, because we are not under the law, but under 
grace?" (Eom. vi. 15.) Then he answers: "God for- 
bid!" In the State of Georgia, no matter how correct- 
ly one has lived, if he violates the law he becomes en- 
tangled in its meshes. So also if we who are in the 
favor or grace of God violate the laws of God, we 
leave the spiritual plane of God's favor, and, as St. 
Peter says (2 Pet. ii. 20), are again entangled and 
overcome, and "the latter end is worse than the be- 
ginning." 




ELIJAH UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE. 



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The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 169 

So, then, let us get the idea clearl}^ : The kingdom 
of grace through Jesus Christ does not do away with 
God's hiws or give us any license to violate them. 
It is a condition in which we receive the favor of 
God ; it is a position in which God may extend a 
favor. The law, St. Paul tells us, was a schoolmaster 
to bring us up to this plane of Christ. (Gal. iii. 24.) 
When we reach the plane to which the law is designed 
to bring us, then we need be no longer under the 
law; we are ready for the favor. But if we should 
want to go back and become entangled again with 
those things in which we have triumphed, the old 
schoolmaster is there with his rod to afflict us. So 
we all make our choice whether we live under the 
reign of law or under the reign of grace. If we live 
under the reign of law, we "take" what we can get ; 
if we live under the reign of grace, we "receive" what 
God gives us. 

When, therefore, we rush into our chamber and 
appeal to God to hear us touching some special mat- 
ter, we should take care to be in a position to re- 
ceive his gracious "favor;" for it is "the effectual 
fervent prayer of a righteous man [that] availeth 
much." (Jas. v. IG.) 

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord : 
and he delighteth in his way." (Ps. xxxvii. 23.) If 
we would have God make all things that happen to 
us in the pilgrimage of life but woof in the loom 
wherein our destiny is woven, we must be in the same 
position of grace or favor, for "all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love God." (Kom. viii. 
28.) The terms "righteous," "good," and "love God" 



170 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

are simply characteristics of the citizenship of 
Christ's new kingdom. 

In all this there is no partiality in God's love for 
his children, for the doors of his kingdom are open 
to all men. Isaiah, the grand old projjhet, published 
the good news over twenty-five hundred years ago: 
''Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, 
and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, 
for he will abundantly pardon." "Ho, every one that 
thirsteth, come ye to the waters . . . without 
money and without price." 

In the kingdom of grace, what is it God will do 
for us? Or, rather, what is it he will not do? David 
sang : "liCt all those that put their trust in thee re- 
joice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou de- 
fen dest them : let them also that love thy name be joy- 
ful in thee. For thou. Lord, wilt bless the righteous ; 
with favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield." 
(Ps. V. 11, 12.) 



XXX. 

THE WHITE STONE AND THE NEW NAME. 

In the Bible reference is made to a white stone 
with a new name which is to be received in the spirit 
world as a reward of triumph. 

St. John the Divine thus speaks of this stone in 
Eevelation ii. 17 : ''He that hath an ear, let him hear 
what the Spirit saith unto the churches ; To him that 
overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, 
and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a 
new name written, which no man knoweth saving he 
' that receiveth it." This stone is given to perpetuate 
man's triumph over evil, and as an enduring substance 
upon which his n^w name shall be recorded by the 
Architect of his being. The stone is white, an emblem 
of purity; and the new name is one which shall be 
known only to the giver and receiver. 

In the lives of Abraham and Jacob we have in- 
stances of the change of name by the Lord, which 
was doubtless to teach us that the Lord reserved the 
right to give all his children a new name when it 
suited his purpose. Certain it is that if we attain to 
that sphere of life which entitles us to the white stone 
we will receive with it a new name by which the 
Father will know us. When Jacob triumphed over 
the angel at the ford Jabbok, he got his new name; 
and it was given him because as a prince he had 

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172 What to Do to Be Saved in It. 

power with God and with men, and prevailed over 
the angel. The new name, Israel, meant "ruling with 
God." So our new name may be to perpetuate the 
greatest triumph in each of our lives. What that 
triumph was, w^e may not recollect; but when God 
reminds us of it by a name that designates it, we will 
remember it forever. 

Man's life is a great warfare; and if he comes off 
victor, the stone will mark his triumph in heaven as 
the stones mark the triumph of men on the battle- 
fields of earthly carnage. There will be only this 
difference, that every soldier will receive the token of 
his own triumph; for in the moral conflicts which 
confront men every man must stand alone and tri- 
umph for himself or fall. 

In ancient times, when the athletes assembled for 
their annual games, the victors were sometimes given 
a white stone, with an inscription describing the 
prize to which they were entitled. The ancients 
also sometimes gave their votes on small stones in 
their judgment halls : the white stone was voted for 
an acquittal, and the black for condemnation. The 
victors in the great moral trial of life will receive 
the white stone of acquittal, and on it will be the 
inscription describing their prize — a new name that 
may forever treasure before God the noblest triumph 
of the life. 

The universal experience of men is but an echo of 
things divine ; so in the evolution of religious thought 
we may expect to find that the stone has marked the 
triumphs in the religious lives of men. Jacob lay 
down at night resting his weary head upon a pillow 
of stone; he saw the vision of the angels ascending 



The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 173 

and descending a ladder from earth to heaven. The 
place and the event became an epoch in his life. In 
the morning he arose and marked the spot with the 
stone upon which he slept. He called the spot Bethel, 
"the house of God." Samuel pursued the Philistines 
and overcame them, and we are told that he marked 
the spot of his triumph with a stone and called the 
place Ebenezer, "the stone of help," signifying that 
"Hither b}^ Thy help I come." The old song, "Here 
I'll Eaise Mine Ebenezer," is from this incident. 

The promise of the white stone is without limita- 
tion to any race or class or Individual; it is "to him 
that overcometh." 

The religion of Christ teaches the universal broth- 
erhood of man and the universal fatherhood of God. 
The Chi'istian is ever traveling toward God. He 
sees and knows that he must ever dare to do God's 
will. He knows that in his own volition is the basis 
of all retribution, and that whoever triumphs over 
evil at last gets the reward of his search. Solomon 
said: "There shall be no reAvard to the evil man." 
(Prov. xxiv. 20.) "But to him that soweth right- 
eousness shall be a sure reward." (Prov. xi. 18.) 
Certain it is that-if wo would have the white stone 
and the new^ name we must "overcome." 

The men of all the earth are fellow-travelers, jour- 
neying to their spirit home. 

"Who are these whose weary feet. 
Pacing life's dark journey through, 
Now have reached that heavenly seat 
They had ever kept in view ? 



174 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven, 

'I from Greenland's frozen land;' 
'I from India's sultry plain;' 

'I from Af ric's barren sand ;' 
'I from islands of the main.' 

All their earthly journey past, 
Every tear and pain gone by, 

Here together met at last, « 

At the portals of the sky ; 

Each the welcome 'Come !' awaits, 

'Conquerors over death and sin!' 
Lift your heads, ye golden gates, 
Let the weary travelers in." 



XXXI. 
A PAKTING WORD. 

All Christian attainments are through faith; for if 
we have not confidence to believe one, we are not in 
position to receive or enjoy his benefactions. The 
]Master said : "As thy faith is, so be it unto thee." 
Having faith in God, we are willing to follow the 
instructions that God gives us, no matter what ou)* 
opinions may be about them. Naaman would rather 
wash in the waters of his own river Abana than in the 
Jordan ; but, to be healed, he had to go to the Jordan. 
We may prefer to get to heaven some other way than 
by repentance and the baptisms prescribed; but we 
had better go in faith the way God has pointed out. 

We believe the highest attainment in Christian 
life is beyond the first principles; it is in the sweet 
realization that we are united in mystical union 
with the divine life in our own bodies, as the temples 
of God and the home of our spirits. From this reali- 
zation comes the dearest fellowship with Christ, that 
abiding in him which brings rest and peace that 
passeth all understanding. From this realization 
comes healing of body and mind, comes spiritual 
building, high above that of the ordinary Christian 
walk of life. It carries us away from sinful acts 
which an enlightened conscience, in the face of the 
divine presence, eschews as serpents of Eden. Let 

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176 The Way to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

us pray for and seek for this realization while we 
study to train our faculties to discriminate between 
good and evil. (Heb. v. 14.) But to realize this 
high state of Christian life takes an abundance of 
faith and trust in God. We have got to trust for 
all things, and absolutely abide in his leadership 
and control and direction. 

Finally, dear reader, we make this request: It* 
you have found in this book help to the kingdom of 
heaven, let the author know it by a letter, that he 
may rejoice that he has helped some life into the 
light. The author for twenty-five years has dealt 
with criminal evidence, and has had a chance to 
study human nature. His sweetest Sabbath service 
during those many years has been in the Sabbath 
school with the little children (paidia) that Jesus 
loves. What a transition — from criminal records to 
the blessed of God ! W. E. H. Searcy^ Sr. 

Griffin, Ga. 



OCT 18 



